Chapter 136
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Do you know what it feels like to have your blood dry up?
Meaning to burn with anxiety and die from extreme distress, it was a vocabulary mainly used when suffering physically and mentally for a long and persistent time.
That was exactly our state now.
A blood-drying feeling.
“…….”
“…….”
For three days.
Being trapped in the ghost story, feeling the fear of death, waiting for the companion who was not coming, we were experiencing what a state of a human who could not sleep or eat properly was like.
Do you know this?
If a person cannot sleep properly for three whole days, normal thinking gradually becomes impossible.
We took catnaps for an hour in turns at the 2nd-floor food court, but even that had its limit. Because we were repeating the state of our nerves being on edge while feeling the threat to our lives every hour.
‘It’s perfect for going crazy.’
……Especially if the companion is a minor caught up in a ghost story for the first time.
“Hic! W-Where are we now…”
“…It’s 56 minutes. Let’s move.”
The high school student I had to rescue stood up, limping.
His mental consumption must be much more severe than mine. Before long, he was staggering from dizziness rather than his ankle, and instead of crying, he muttered nonsense into the air.
He had run out of energy to cry or get angry.
‘Because we can’t even eat properly.’
Needless to say, the safe food items that could be obtained in this damn mart were extremely few, and the majority were things that the high school student wouldn’t have even touched normally.
……Things like mice or cockroaches.
Things that wouldn’t be treated as mart products by anyone.
‘Up to three days, it’s a lineup where one would say they’d rather starve.’
Rarely, items that shoppers had already checked out and lost were found intermittently in the food court, and we had to search for food among them to eat.
We saw it only once in three days.
Has there ever been a time in my life when a banana was so welcome?
‘To put that another way, the only thing we ate in three days was a banana…’
It was crazy.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we hadn’t met other missing persons on the second floor yet, so there were no competitors.
Perhaps it was natural. The missing persons….
‘Most of them… are on the upper floors.’
“…….”
Anyway.
This was the limit.
‘The high school student I’m in charge of is out of both physical strength and mental power.’
Filling our stomachs with water from the food court’s water purifier also had its limit.
At this rate, in about two days, we would really capture and eat mice or bugs.
‘Of course, at this rate, before eating cockroaches, the probability of something… going wrong is higher.’
Currently, we were waking up every hour to go to the restroom and back, but if one of us dozed off or collapsed and this term got messed up…….
That would be the end.
‘…We would encounter an employee.’
Whether it was an employee who came to take orders in the food court, or an employee pretending to clean the restroom.
Guided outside. Processed as missing.
Leaving only this phrase, we would become a line in the exploration records.
A mixture of repulsion and chill ran down my spine.
“…….”
To be honest, surviving this precariously for three days while dragging a minor with a painful leg was also thanks to luck.
Of course, I was no fool either. Meaning I didn’t create this situation on purpose.
‘I never expected not to meet Agent Bronze for three whole days…!’
Right.
My senior agent had evaporated.
This was driving me crazy.
“…….”
On the first day, I thought our timings simply didn’t match.
‘Did he wait on the second floor and move on in the meantime because we hid under the display stand for tens of minutes?’
If he didn’t hurt his leg like the high school student I was in charge of, he might have set out to prepare for escape more aggressively.
So after much consideration, I decided to keep waiting on the second floor.
‘The probability of returning to the second floor to rest is high.’
In fact, there was no choice.
Because carrying the high school student with a painful leg up and down the floors again was close to a suicidal act.
I chose to wait on the relatively safe second floor for now, and I think it was a rational decision.
But he didn’t come.
So from the second day, I began to search the other floors.
I couldn’t search for long. Leaving the injured high school student alone for even a few hours felt like he would die.
But even when I committed the crazy act of going all the way to the first basement floor with difficulty, the situation did not change.
Agent Bronze was nowhere to be found.
At least, not within the range I could search within an hour.
Three days passed like that.
And….
‘All the while, the mart did not resume normal business…….’
One of the reasons why escaping before closing was earnestly recommended.
The main culprit that turned this mart into hell and lowered the survival rate of civilians.
The shortest period recorded for the resumption of mart business is one day, and the longest is 20 days.
Not knowing when the business will resume.
Indeed.
We didn’t know when the new day of Looky Mart would begin.
Sometimes normal business would begin in just one day, but sometimes even if hundreds of hours passed in human perception, a day would not pass.
‘Because of this, the gap between reality and time gradually widened, to the point where there was also… a speculation that the time of Looky Mart became the past of a long time ago.’
No matter how correct that speculation was, the important thing was the reality we faced.
That we had been trapped here for three days.
…I was gradually afraid of what thoughts were rising in the high school student’s head.
“Um, actually, we came here to find a kid living in the same apartment.”
Just then, I heard a dazed muttering.
“…You came to find him?”
“Yes, yes. He went missing after DMing that he was going to Lucky Mart. So we said it was like a ghost story, we would find him, saying things like that…”
Oh my goodness.
“But it was a foolish thing to do. He must be dead already…. What if, what if he was ground in the blender?”
“…Let’s not think too far ahead.”
I patted the high school student’s shoulder.
“First of all, you will be able to go out today.”
“…Yes?”
I had a card up my sleeve.
I recalled the record that was presumed to be Agent Bronze’s now.
An unexpected situation occurred, and contact with the agent was lost for three days.
Result: Rescue failed. Agent returned alone.
Reconstructing this….
‘It means after three days, contact was established with the agent.’
The agent had escaped alone then.
Although the rescue failed, the agent must have made attempts to rescue the civilians.
‘He must have tried to hold out until the resumption of business.’
Therefore, probabilistically, the probability of the doors opening at the time of business resumption today was very high.
“C-Could it be now…”
“Right. Just wait a moment.”
Filled with hope and expectation, I calmly looked at my wristwatch.
[ 09 : 59 ]
My heart thumped.
Soon, when the time changed….
[ 10 : 00 ]
The hour.
Silence.
“……?”
I waited a bit longer.
But nothing happened.
No logo song came out, no announcement was made, and the lights did not return.
……The entrance doors did not open.
“…….”
The mart did not resume business today either….
‘Fucking hell.’
I blinked.
A cold, heavy shock echoed in my sleep-deprived brain…….
“Is, is it over?”
“…….”
“Ah, ah-ah…….”
“It’s okay. There is another way…”
I turned my head.
The high school student was rustling something.
The receipt.
It was the notice of the Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau disguised in that form. It was probably the paper where the high school student had found the number for requesting rescue.
‘Why that…’
Was he trying to find a helpful method?
However, instead of looking at the content of the receipt, the high school student peeled something off from inside. And trying to toss it into his mouth…….
“…!!”
I slapped the high school student’s hand away.
“Ah!”
I forced his hand open and snatched what was inside. He resisted, but I ignored it.
“No…!”
…A white capsule-type pill.
‘This.’
I knew this form.
The pill for euthanasia… that the Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau once enclosed when placing notices in high-grade ghost stories.
If it is too painful, please take the enclosed capsule.
It guarantees a comfortable end.
My bad premonition was correct.
‘Dammit, dammit, dammit!’
It had been enclosed in the notice this kid saw.
“I-I’m sorry,”
The high school student said, crying.
“Um, I can’t do it anymore. I don’t want to be ground in the blender. I, I’m so scared and dizzy, I can’t do it. I want to die comfortably…”
My breath caught.
“I’m sorry, are you doing that because I’m trying to get comfortable alone? Then, if one is supposed to die even from eating half a pill, if we share it…”
“No.”
Looking at the high school student who had begun to ramble, I clenched my teeth.
And with as comfortable an expression as possible, I patted his arm.
“It’s okay. There is another way to escape.”
“How?! We haven’t slept for three days, we can’t eat, we can’t do anything…”
“We can do it.”
I held him tightly.
“Until now, I used the method of holding out as safely as possible because I thought the business would resume soon. If the doors don’t open soon, there is another way.”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah.”
It was the truth.
…If only I resolved on one thing.
-Abandon Agent Bronze.
The worry that he wouldn’t be able to escape because he was looking for us, the pressure to confirm each other’s survival, and the hope of receiving help.
Abandon them all for now.
After all, there was a record that Agent Bronze himself escaped on his own.
…Although the rescue failed.
‘Trying to take care of even the civilian who followed that side… is a delusion.’
Get a grip.
I chose to do my best within my capability.
‘If the two of us must hold out until the resumption of business….’
The priorities quickly shifted in my head.
Since I had pondered for the past three days, the next plan was decided quickly.
“We are going up.”
“Yes…?”
“Don’t eat this, just keep it in your mouth lightly.”
I immediately distributed the Nostalgia Candy to the high school student.
A bizarre item that fixed one’s state to the time when it was best.
“Wow…!”
As soon as he put the candy in his mouth, the high school student’s eyes changed.
“M-My leg is fine!”
“You must think of sucking it very slowly. It only works while you are eating it.”
“Yes…!”
The high school student, whose condition rapidly improved, stood up with a bright face. It seemed his mental state had also returned to ‘when it was best.’
I was prepared for a scene where he questioned why I hadn’t given him such a thing sooner, but he seemed too excited by the mysterious item that immediately improved his body to think of such things.
“Um, the third floor is the top floor of the mart. Are we going because there is a way to escape there? Can we escape from there? Are we going to escape?”
“We are going to ‘prepare’ for escape.”
And….
“The third floor is not the top floor.”
“…Yes?”
“Sometimes a door going higher than the third floor appears.”
However.
“T-The receipt said not to go there…”
It was the correct answer.
The mart is a three-story building, and from the first basement floor to the third floor is the mart.
We tell you once again. Even if you witness an emergency exit leading to the fourth floor, do not believe it. The fourth floor is not the mart.
Looky Mart 4th floor.
This was also a gimmick that was used almost like a meme in the <Records of the Dark Exploration>.
‘It’s a disappearance keyword.’
Moving up to the fourth floor.
Ending with this sentence, everyone disappeared.
It didn’t matter what kind of desperate and sweat-inducing interesting exploration they did before that. As if possessed, they disappeared vainly and helplessly.
So it was even scarier.
In the end, no one wrote ‘why’ they disappeared, or what was on the fourth floor.
It was an tacit agreement.
Even the case that dealt with the disappearance process in the most detail was so.
I recalled.
The challenge of the agent who realized that all rescue targets had died.
/Start of recording
Agent Choi: So I am on the third floor now. I found the door to the fourth floor.
Agent Choi: I will just open the door slightly and check. I am not crazy. We can’t just leave the fourth floor like this. The number of people recorded as missing after going up to the fourth floor is almost three digits, isn’t it?
(The agent leaves personal excuses and a testament.)
Agent Choi: Opening the door to the fourth floor now. And… opened. Tada!
(The sounds of a door opening, entering, and the door closing are heard in succession.)
Agent Choi: It’s ordinary, though? It’s just a slightly worn emergency exit. There are stairs…. There is really nothing different. The exit door is also well in place.
(Observed for a few more minutes, but no anomalies.)
Agent Choi: Okay. Now going up.
(Footsteps echo. Presumed to be climbing the stairs.)
Agent Choi: Let’s see. The exit door is still fine… Ah. ……It’s gone. Now there’s no choice but to go up. Let’s go!
(Footsteps continue for 30 seconds.)
Agent Choi: Whew… arrived. In front of the fourth-floor door.
Agent Choi: The appearance doesn’t look much different. It’s just an iron door.
Agent Choi: …Then, I will open it.
(The iron door opens. At the same time, the Lucky Mart logo song begins to play.)
Agent Choi: Huh?
(The logo song gradually grows louder. Varies.)
Agent Choi: H-Hold on.
(Undescribable shriek. Roar. A strange sound like filling air, begging sound, balloon-rubbing sound, bursting sound, 12 types of unidentifiable sounds and ■■■ ■■.)
Agent Choi: (Silence)
Agent Choi: Welcome to Looky Mart!
Nothing recorded for the next 24 hours. The recording ended as the battery ran out.
The agent’s recorder was later found in the electronics sales section of Looky Mart’s 3rd floor.
“…….”
It was a record enough to make one resolve never to open the emergency door leading to the fourth floor.
But.
“It’s okay. Once we find the door, I will tell you what to do.”
Our destination was there.
“……Yes.”
Thanks to the trust built over three days or the mysterious power of the Nostalgia Candy, fortunately, the high school student nodded obediently.
“Let’s move quietly.”
We left the 2nd-floor food court.
And walking up the stopped escalator, we quietly went up.
Although we avoided the escalator inspection time of that section, we took off our shoes and walked very carefully barefoot so as not to attract the employees’ attention by making even the slightest noise.
The conversation also stopped for a moment.
Slowly, quietly, we moved our steps one by one, breaking into cold sweat.
And the third floor that finally revealed its appearance….
“Ah…….”
It was strange.
Originally, the third floor in the previous Lucky Mart was a space for event sales.
On different dates, various discount display stands with this or that theme were arranged alternately.
And the third floor we were seeing now.
“W-What is this…?”
Those display cases were repeating countlessly.
An endless mart.
If the Looky Mart below the second floor was unpleasant because it reproduced the past as it was, from the third floor, the space… was expanded infinitely, which was bizarre.
Currently, there are 3,611 event sales stands reported on the 3rd floor of the mart, and the area is 232 square kilometers.
Always check the starting point.
If you lose your way, you will never find the escalator leading to the lower floors.
The giant maze, or looking as if we entered the plan or drawing of a mentally deranged person, the endlessly repeating display stands and special product displays were perfect for driving a person crazy.
But to put it another way, it meant it was good for shaking off or hiding from employees.
In some stores far away, it was said that employees did not appear for several months.
‘It’s also good for secretly stealing food or daily necessities.’
…If, that was, one gave up escaping.
Therefore, missing persons whose number could not even be properly grasped would be scattered inside….
Perhaps, Agent Bronze as well.
“…….”
“…….”
“We must stick to the wall. If you find an emergency exit there, tell me immediately.”
“Y-Yes…!”
We stuck to the wall behind the escalator and moved slowly.
Together, we entered the dizzying path made of display stand shelves whose ends could not be seen.
Inside the dark general mart where only the emergency lights were on, the corners repeated endlessly.
[Camping Gear Special Sale]
[Winter Season Outlet Event]
[Housewarming Gift Event Price]
[Sell Flesh, Looky Mart]
[Spring Kitchenware Grand Discount]
Eventually, bizarre phrases began to appear. Every time I saw those display stands or signs, I turned around and walked again.
For tens of minutes, checking the position of the escalator, we were crossing from section to section.
A small sound was heard.
From somewhere beyond the display stands, a dull, echoing sound.
-…….
I quickened my steps.
However, the sound gradually became concrete, and finally….
-Oh? Is someone…
“Huh?”
The high school student raised his head abruptly.
-Who is it? Can I help you?
A voice speaking from afar.
“Um, a person…”
“Shh.”
I lowered my body together with the high school student.
And warned in a very small voice.
“It might not be a person.”
“…!”
“And…… even if it is a person, would a person who has been here for a long time be normal?”
“…!!”
There was no way they would be sane.
The probability was crazily slim.
Especially if they were speaking while pretending to be friendly like that.
‘It’s a danger.’
A person was actually scarier.
-Excuse me. You’re a person there, right? I will help you.
We ran, touching the wall.
The friendly voice offering help continued to be heard.
-An employee will follow because of my voice. I know the way to escape. I will help you.
Sweat formed on the back of the high school student’s neck. I kept moving my feet, measuring the distance from the voice.
-Quickly. An employee shouldn’t see you.
‘Fucking hell.’
Should I attempt to subdue them even for a moment? No, if employees really swarmed because of that… yes, if they were a person, it was right to leave them alone until they were captured by the employee.
I had to endure and move… wait.
‘That.’
Scribbling my head, the moment I raised it, something appeared in front of the wall we were tracing.
An iron door.
An emergency exit with a green light. And….
A sign.
[ 3F ↗ 4F ]
“T-That…!”
It came out.
‘The emergency exit to the fourth floor.’
I immediately ran and grabbed the handle of the iron door.
And hurriedly instructed the high school student.
The most important thing.
“Never climb the stairs.”
“Yes?”
“Once we open the door and enter, you stand still on that spot. Got it? You must absolutely not move.”
The high school student nodded with frightened eyes.
Right.
This was my hypothesis.
Agent Choi: It’s ordinary, though? It’s just a slightly worn emergency exit. There are stairs…. There is really nothing different. The exit door is also well in place.
‘…But as the agent climbed the stairs, the door suddenly disappeared.’
Then to deduce conversely.
-As long as one does not climb the stairs, the 3rd-floor door does not disappear.
Because they have not left the third floor yet.
And if this idea was correct, there was no safer space than this.
‘There was no record that employees tried to climb up to the fourth floor.’
Because it wasn’t the mart.
In the end, the inside of the 4th-floor emergency exit became a safe zone where only people could open the door and pass.
Then everything became easier.
‘I can also eat the food I brought in my tattoo there.’
Because once we opened this door and stepped out, it wasn’t the mart.
Checking the outside by opening the door every time it became 10 o’clock on the landing, checking if the business resumed.
‘Betting on this is the safest.’
To escape while dragging the high school student with a hurt leg, unless Nostalgia Candy was infinitely supplied, this was the best.
Although I was scared because all kinds of 4th-floor disappearance stories remained in my head, I had to do it.
Clenching my teeth, I opened the iron door.
Creak.
Making the same door sound as described, the worn staircase area inside revealed its appearance.
“Let’s enter, carefully.”
“Y-Yes…!”
I entered inside with the high school student.
And to prevent any unexpected situations, I slipped a piece of paper torn from the notebook between the emergency doors so it wouldn’t close.
To the extent that one wouldn’t notice it was open when looking from the outside.
‘Whew.’
With this, we could also shake off the crazy bastard who was pursuing us.
And just as we were catching our breath.
“A-Agent Grape…!”
Pulling my arm, the high school student called me in a voice that sounded like he was about to lose his breath.
And pointed upward.
“There…!”
At the top of the stairs.
With a chilling feeling, I raised my head.
Someone was standing on the stairs to the fourth floor.
A short-haired woman with a pale complexion and hollow eyes.
“…A-A person!”
Go Yeong-eun.
My colleague, the former medical student.
“…….”
‘……What?’
My brain couldn’t comprehend what kind of situation this was.
But the next moment, her attire entered my eyes.
The iron badge attached to her collar.
The identification proof for Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau agents.
‘Ah.’
A certain word in my memory passed through my head.
-However, two agents who entered earlier are in a state of short-term disappearance in that paranormal disaster.
The two missing agents Agent Bronze had mentioned.
“…!”
One of them was my colleague who had infiltrated the Disaster Management Bureau as a rookie.