Chapter 138

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I had been contemplating since the moment I saw the mart floor plan.

Just how much of my body did I have to cut and place on the grill for this damn mart ghost story to consider it ‘barbecue.’

I considered everything from my wrist to my shoulder.

However, the target to be cut was decided from the beginning.

‘My right arm.’

If I cut my leg, my mobility would be compromised.

If I cut my left arm, I wouldn’t be able to use my tattoo.

And since I was close to being ambidextrous, I could use whichever arm remained.

Then there was only one conclusion.

‘Cut a part of my right arm.’

Of course, cutting through the bone of an adult forearm reaching 10 cm in diameter with a knife was a crazy thing to do.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be cut in one go.

‘A chainsaw would have been better.’

Thud, thud.

I cut my arm with the giant butcher knife, almost tearing the cross-section. The sound of the people in front of me and next to me whimpering was heard through the splashing blood.

There was no pain, but there was sensation.

That feeling of the nerves in my arm being severed.

Cold sweat ran down my back, and my head went numb. The dull mental shock of fear and dread.

Even though I had injected Happy Maker, it still came.

‘…Am I developing a tolerance?’

Or perhaps the candle was ‘protecting’ me even from the influence of Happy Maker. No, maybe it was just my imagination.

The important thing was that I didn’t die of shock and was able to move.

And….

Thud.

Finally, the moment the knife struck down.

It detached.

“…!!”

It worked.

I held my completely separated right arm in my left arm, while placing what I had pulled out beforehand onto the cut cross-section.

The Vampiric Knife.

‘To think I would use this for hemostasis.’

Of course, this was a temporary measure.

Ignoring the knife vibrating as it drank my blood, I pulled the knife away and seared the cross-section on the grill.

If I had sensation, I would have fainted.

And when I thought the bleeding was reasonably under control, before dying of blood loss, I began to move again.

“W-What is this, what… Aargh!”

“Just a moment.”

Thud.

I cut the severed part in half again. I did this after estimating the sizes of the various parts already on the grill.

And without giving them time to react, I placed one cut piece on the grill.

Sizzle.

Making a sound, it cooked—no, it burned.

It was burning…. It was burning.

‘It’s a lump of meat.’

It is no longer mine.

And as soon as this situation was resolved and we got out of this crazy mart, I would drink Daydream Co.’s C-grade Regeneration Potion.

Then everything would be fine….

Let’s be calm. Breaking into cold sweat, I stared at the grill with unfocused eyes.

And after a time that felt like it would drive me crazy.

Ding.

The ‘Sell Flesh, Looky Mart’ store where dozens of grills were arranged without context. From one side, which looked like one of the grills, a sound echoed.

Counter.

At a place that looked like a temporary checkout counter, a rectangular white cash envelope with ‘Thank you for participating in the event’ written on it was placed.

I barely opened the envelope with one hand.

A coupon that looked like an awkward counterfeit bill mimicking Korean and English was revealed.

[50,000 Won]

If it were a normal mart, it was a terribly generous bait to participate in the event.

However, it was unknown whether it was an amount that could be considered sufficient in the current situation.

“W-What is it? What just happened…”

“Just a moment.”

Once more.

I repeated this process.

However, this time, instead of me, the high school student placed what was left on another grill.

“Hic, huuuup…”

The high school student almost fainted but clenched his teeth. My heart ached, but there was nothing I could do. Go Yeong-eun had to hold the candle, and since I had already participated, I wouldn’t be counted.

And only after receiving one more 50,000-won coupon could I put the Nostalgia Candy in my mouth.

‘Whew.’

I endured until then in case an error in judgment occurred.

And the moment the candy touched my mouth, it returned me to the ‘healthiest period.’

The magic of Nostalgia.

“…It’s okay. Look. It’s fine now, right?”

“Heuk, heuuuup…”

The high school student couldn’t bring himself to look at my regenerated arm and couldn’t even nod.

Go Yeong-eun’s face became incredibly pale, but conscious of the candle, she didn’t dare look back or show a violent reaction.

…Since she already knew I had Daydream Co.’s special Regeneration Potion, she probably ended it at that level.

“…Agent, did you drink the potion just now?”

“No. It’s an item that temporarily restores my appearance.”

Go Yeong-eun’s back flinched again.

“Since only my right arm is gone, even in the worst-case scenario, there won’t be a problem escaping. Rest assured.”

“To think you are saying that now…! Whew, ……yes.”

I was grateful for her composure.

Anyway, as I finally took the Nostalgia Candy that I had saved until the last moment I could endure, I barely recovered from the state of not sleeping or eating properly for three days.

And now my state was….

“…….”

‘Wow.’

What a crazy thing.

My brain, which had regained its composure, spun like crazy and rang a warning signal.

I began to realize just how pushed to the edge and crazy I had been acting for the past three days.

‘From… the second day, I wasn’t in my right mind.’

I thought I had left the minor in the 2nd-floor food court and gone around alone, thoroughly searching the mart to find Agent Bronze.

But that was not the case.

‘If it’s a place that can be searched within a mere hour or two, it wasn’t a place to hide in the first place.’

This wasn’t a convenience store or a small supermarket, but a large mart chain, so my ‘thoroughly’ searching was an impossible concept.

Especially considering the third floor that repeated endlessly.

‘My judgment was at rock bottom.’

It wasn’t just the high school student who was panicking; I had also spent the three days in a semi-panic state.

“…Let’s return to the emergency stairs now.”

“Yes.”

While walking behind Go Yeong-eun’s candle, while wiping the blood off the butcher knife, packing it back, and placing it on the original display stand, deductions continued to flash in my head like sparks.

Mistakes.

Rebuttals to a few logics I had carelessly concluded on my own.

-Does Agent Bronze really escape after three days?

Let’s check the exploration record I barely recalled again.

Exploration Record #3?

The dispatch agent entered the mart around 7 PM after receiving a civilian’s rescue request. (Dispatcher: ???)

Looky Mart’s business hours closed early due to ??? reasons. An unexpected situation occurred, and contact with the agent was lost for three days.

Result: Rescue failed. Agent returned alone.

First rebuttal.

-The entry time is different.

We entered the mart after 8 PM.

However, the above case says he entered around 7 PM.

Of course, the entry time might have changed because of me as a variable. Considering that the entry was delayed by about an hour to talk with me and receive items, it roughly matched.

The important thing was that the current situation became different from that case.

‘I must not force myself to think in line with that case.’

And the second rebuttal.

-It does not say when the agent escapes.

It only says ‘lost contact for three days,’ not that the agent escapes after three days.

In other words, my certainty that the mart business would resume after three days was close to the realm of faith from the beginning.

‘…Phew.’

And….

Let’s step back from this fear and think more rationally.

In the first place.

‘It is strange for the Disaster Management Bureau to permit throwing a newly accepted rookie agent into a high-grade ghost story.’

This place wasn’t Daydream Co.

They wouldn’t send someone empty-handed when exploring such a crazy Form-Breaking ghost story comparable to Daydream Co.’s B-grade.

…Unless there was a reliable safety device.

‘Judging based on that….’

……Something caught on.

Disaster Management Bureau agents occasionally receive items that allow emergency escape in ghost stories below a certain grade.

And since rookies might use this item carelessly in panic, they usually leave this option to the senior.

So….

If Agent Bronze really had been issued such a thing.

‘Then he would try to take me along to escape as much as possible.’

It was a matter of responsibility.

“…….”

“Agent Grape?”

“Please wait a moment.”

I stopped my steps for a moment and began to reconstruct the situation of the first day from Agent Bronze’s perspective.

The situation of being separated from the rookie.

No place tacitly agreed upon, no direct communication method. A single glance saying to meet ‘above’ was all.

An unexpected event in a high-grade ghost story.

The field judgment of a veteran who must have met many rookie agents…….

“…….”

Ah.

“Agent.”

“Yes.”

“I think… I might be able to find the location of the senior agent who entered with me.”

“……!”

* * *

Ending with the clean words, ‘It is easier to escape by joining the veteran,’ Ms. Go Yeong-eun agreed to additional searching using the candle.

Our destination was….

“This escalator, right?”

“Yes.”

The escalator going up from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor.

Here.

“…….”

The three people went down to the first floor and stood in front of the escalator. The quiet rail was in the dark, having stopped operating.

However, it was an escalator we had never used.

Since the high school student and I had only used the opposite escalator.

The down escalator coming from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. We had crawled up it in reverse.

‘And we only used that one after that, too.’

Every time I set out to search, hoping I might find the fishing line of the item I used, I used to sweep the area between the escalators and the floor.

Because I was that desperate.

But….

‘An ordinary person would use the escalator going up when trying to go to the upper floor.’

Agent Bronze must have expected me to use this escalator.

I stood in front of it, handing another Nostalgia Candy to the high school student.

‘…Three candies left.’

From now on, I had to use them more carefully.

Of course, for now, I had to maximize the efficiency of using it at this moment.

“Agent. Could you climb the escalator?”

“…I will walk slowly. Be careful.”

“Yes.”

Ms. Go Yeong-eun took the lead and stepped onto the escalator.

And the three of us began to walk up the escalator directly.

“Phew.”

Let’s think.

‘As I deduced, Agent Bronze must have tried to deduce my behavioral patterns too….’

And the probability was high that he made a more rational judgment than me whose mental state had broken.

Unless he met a crazy situation where a person was ground alive in a blender, hid under it to hold out for tens of minutes, and the ankle of the high school student he had to rescue broke….

In that way, he deduces my actions in reverse.

-Rookie agent. Has experience in ghost stories but looks naive due to trauma.

If such a rookie moved more passively on the first day, what method would he have chosen?

‘First of all, he would have entered the second floor much later.’

Instead of going up to the second floor in a hurry, holding out as much as possible in places he could hide on the first floor, moving frozen and flustered like a ‘typical rookie.’

‘Agent Bronze would have expected us to come to the upper floor much later.’

But what if he had marked another place as safer?

If he also thought that the rookie’s group might panic if Agent Bronze himself wasn’t on the second floor.

If so….

The answer was one.

‘Notify them beforehand, before they arrive on the second floor.’

“…….”

I looked at the escalator billboard.

Under the red billboard of a conspicuous color, as if part of the panel, a receipt was lightly attached with only its end exposed.

The notice of the Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau.

“Uh?”

Although it was a part of the mart easy to pass by carelessly, it was a sign that would catch the eye of a related person like lightning.

With the background of my companions stirring, I peeled it off and unfolded it.

On the back, large and scribbled handwriting.

Season-Off Winter Camping Grand Discount

3rd floor far left wall. 12th

“I think I found it.”

I caught the signal left by Agent Bronze.

* * *

We moved our steps quickly in the candlelight and mist.

The three people moved as if running a three-legged race.

“The 12th, right? The 12th.”

“Yes…!

Realizing he might meet his friend, the high school student also clenched his teeth and quickened his steps cooperatively.

The repeating space of the giant mart. Passing section after section that continued eerily, the place we were trying to arrive at was….

[Season-Off Winter Camping Grand Discount]

Finally revealed its appearance.

A store space where tents, bonfires, burners, and chairs were displayed like a camping scene.

Ziiiip.

One side of a tent opened slightly, and an anxious face looking at the surroundings rolled its eyes.

“Hey! Kim Jae-hoon!”

The high school student who was inside the candlelight dashed out.

He had reason to.

Because it was his friend whom Agent Bronze had taken with him.

“Ah, ah-ah-ah!”

“Are you okay?”

“Heur-eur-eur….”

The two kids cried and held onto each other.

I kept watch for a moment in case something dangerous came because they made noise outside the candlelight, but there was no particular anomaly.

‘It seems Agent Bronze took measures.’

That was a relief. Ms. Go Yeong-eun and I also relaxed our tension slightly and approached the two.

“Should we… blow out the candle for a moment?”

“Let’s do that.”

Toward the safe zone the veteran agent had found.

“Hic.”

The two high school students barely calmed down after a few minutes.

The high school student whom Agent Bronze had taken looked like he had suffered mentally, but showed no signs of major injury or exhaustion.

‘It seems he took good care of him.’

Indeed, a veteran is more skilled at rescue than a rookie agent.

I watched the two with a slightly apologetic heart toward the high school student I had taken charge of.

My high school student, who looked fine after eating a Nostalgia Candy, forced a smile and spoke.

“Still, it’s a relief you are safe too.”

“……Yeah.”

…….

This was slightly strange.

I read signs of anxiety and panic on the face of the high school student from Agent Bronze’s side.

I thought it was a natural sign since he had wandered in the ghost story for several days, but even considering that, it was… prominent.

Ms. Go Yeong-eun also whispered to me quietly.

“Agent Grape, that… the person you were looking for is of course not that high school student, right?”

“……Yes.”

“Then where is he? That agent.”

“…….”

A strange and ominous premonition arose.

‘Could it be.’

I met the eyes of the high school student who was with Agent Bronze. His eyes flinched.

The reason we came here.

“Where is the agent?”

“…….”

Tears began to pour from the eyes of the high school student sitting in the tent.

“T-That agent, h-he got caught by the employee and chased…! Dozens of them, ah, ah-ah, like!”

“…!”

“And… I think he was caught.”

…….

What.

“The, the employees… seemed to drag him somewhere, *sob*.”

Three days since being trapped in the mart ghost story.

Agent Bronze…… had already become a fixture.