The Signal
"Ahh. I'm full."
Kim Dohyun rubbed his stomach. Two crumpled kimbap wrappers and two empty water bottles sat in front of him. He had been getting by on meals bought with magic stones — kimbap, those seaweed rice rolls, and bottled water.
Going with kimbap really was the right call.
Snacks would have tasted fine, but the nutrition would have been hopelessly lopsided, and he would have wrecked his body in short order. Kimbap ran a little heavy on carbohydrates, yet even eaten on its own it still supplied most of what a person needed. Choosing it as a product had been an excellent decision.
Before long, though, his brow furrowed.
And still the hunters barely come...
Days had slipped by since the last two parties passed through. He had waited for others, but not so much as a glimpse of anyone had appeared.
Then I'll have to make them come to me...
Dohyun tilted his head.
Is there even a way?
He wasn't bragging, but fleeing for his life from the beasts had driven him into a fairly remote corner of the 10th Floor — and a thickly overgrown one at that, the better to hide from the creatures around him. Luring hunters all the way out here would take real effort.
The first plan he considered was buying something powerfully fragrant and drawing them in by scent. But no matter how strong the smell, nothing guaranteed it would reach hunters far off, so he abandoned the idea. The second was to buy fireworks and call them with a loud noise. Thinking it through, though, beasts would obviously swarm toward any great racket, and no hunter was going to walk into what amounted to certain death. He dropped that plan as well.
Isn't there anything that might actually help...?
He scanned the product list and found nothing useful. Then his eyes locked onto a single item.
"Huh?"
"If it's this...?"
He added it at once.
Ugh... Damn it. I never should have gone that far just to take a piss...
Kwon Dohan was forcing his way through the dark forest. Night had fallen on the way back from a finished raid, and his party had settled in to sleep rough. Just as the campfire was lit and he was about to drift off, the need to relieve himself had pulled him away from the others — and he had promptly lost the path.
The rule was absolute. No matter what, you moved in pairs at the very least.
I must have been out of my mind. What was so troublesome about calling someone that I came out here alone?
He had never imagined he could lose his way in the time it took to piss.
A soft hiss of leaves brushed past him.
"Eek."
Dohan shuddered. Wandering a floor after dark was what hunters called suicide. You could barely see, and the beasts only grew stronger at night. Remembering that warning from his captain and vice-captain, he broke into a cold sweat.
I-is this really how I die? This pointlessly? On the way back from taking a piss?
His head swam. He shoved desperately through the brush ahead, but the campfire was nowhere to be seen. At last, exhausted, he stood in the middle of the forest and gasped for breath. Look wherever he liked, there was nothing but undergrowth. The fear of death closed around him, little by little.
No. No, I can't die here.
That was when a faint light wavered in front of his eyes. His face lit up.
A c-campfire!
He lunged toward it without thinking.
"I-I'm saved. I'm saved!"
He crashed through the brush toward the light for a long while before a wrongness settled over him.
But... did campfires ever look like that?
The flame before his eyes was far too small to be a campfire. Worse, it danced in the empty air, swaying as if it were alive. A fire fixed to the ground could never do that. And then a story he had heard long ago came back to him.
"You know, in the Tower, they say the vengeful spirits of people killed by the beasts show themselves."
"Oh, come on. There's no such thing. You're just saying that to mess with me, right?"
"It's true, I tell you. They lure hunters who've lost their way at night with a will-o'-the-wisp, draw them in close, and then pounce in an instant — and turn them into the same thing they are."
"If you've got time to mutter weird rumors, get some sleep. I'm not scared of that stuff at all."
"...For someone who isn't scared, your legs are shaking something fierce."
"A w-will-o'-the-wisp!"
Dohan's legs trembled uncontrollably. He had never believed that story was real.
What do I do? I have to run...
But his legs had been frozen for some time now, and they would not move an inch. All the while, the light drew closer.
Damn it, legs. Please move. Move.
He screamed the plea inwardly to no effect at all, and spared a moment to curse the legs that refused him. Then the light was right in front of his face, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Aaaah! S-somebody, sav— mmph!"
"Shh. Quiet."
The scream died against a hand clamped over his mouth, and Dohan's eyes flew open. A man was looking straight at him.
A g-ghost? B-but...
For a ghost, he looked entirely too alive. Then Dohan frowned. The light had been blinding him for a while now. His gaze slid toward it of its own accord, and his eyes went wide.
"A f-flashlight!?"
The Tower was a place where electronic devices did not work. And yet here was something that had no business functioning, working perfectly.
Thank goodness. If he'd screamed, the beasts would have come running.
Fortunately the hunter had said nothing until Dohyun was close enough to reach him, so the approach had been easy.
"Are you all right? Did you lose your way?"
"Th-that was a flashlight? That light?"
The hunter hadn't answered the question at all, only asked something else entirely, and Dohyun understood.
Right. Electronics don't work in the Tower, do they? So he didn't realize it was a flashlight.
No wonder the man hadn't moved. There was nothing strange about freezing in fear when an unidentifiable light came toward you.
"Yes. That's right. It's a flashlight."
"H-how is a flashlight working in the Tower...?"
"That's... Well, it isn't safe to stay out here. Would you come with me to where I'm staying?"
"Huh? Oh — yes, of course."
Dohyun turned and led him on. The flashlight was the item he had added to draw hunters in. Shine it at the sky, he had thought, and perhaps they would come looking. But when he stepped out of the convenience store, moonlight had caught someone far off, pushing through the brush toward the shop. The figure was alone. Sensing a hunter separated from a party, Dohyun had taken the flashlight and gone to him.
"That's a relief. You very nearly stayed lost out here."
"Y-yes. Thank you, truly. I don't know how I'll ever repay this kindness..."
"It's nothing so grand as kindness... Do you have a party with you?"
"Huh? Yes. I was traveling with them and got separated by accident... That's how I ended up wandering the forest."
"And there's no way for you to meet back up with them?"
"No... I'm afraid not... So if you would please let me join your party, I would be truly grateful. I'll serve you with everything I have!"
The hunter seemed to have assumed that Dohyun had companions of his own. Dohyun shook his head.
"I don't have a party."
"What? What do you mean...?"
"Well. Here we are."
They pushed through the brush, and a convenience store stood before them. Dohyun turned to Dohan, who had gone stock-still, staring blankly at the building.
"Welcome to the Tower Convenience Store."
"A con...venience store...?"
"Yes. This is a convenience store that I operate."
"What!?"
Dohyun let the reaction — one he had grown used to — go in one ear and out the other. He stepped in front of the store and aimed the flashlight at the sky.
"Um... what are you doing...?"
"What else? You said you have a party, didn't you? I ought to make sure they can find their way here."
Three short flashes. Three long. Three short again. The same rhythm struck the clouds overhead and faded.
"It's Morse code. I sent an SOS, so your companions should be along shortly."
Sure enough, it was not long before voices carried out of the forest.
"Damn it, Kwon Dohan, that son of a bitch — what the hell is he doing this far out?"
"Captain! There's a light over there!"
A moment later the hunters broke through the brush and stopped dead, staring blankly at the convenience store that had appeared before their eyes.
Tower Convenience Store — Main Branch
"A c-convenience store...?"
Dohan's companions looked around in bewilderment. Dohyun bent at the waist, polite and precise.
Following his lead, the hunters stepped inside — and cried out.
"B-bottled water!? And it's this cold... No, wait — how is this refrigerator even running?"
"What is this kimbap? It doesn't even smell off... How has it not gone bad all this time?"
Dohyun watched the hunters fussing and exclaiming inside the store, and satisfaction settled over him.
It was time to open for business.