Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 137

Go Youngeun is a calm colleague.

That was a definite fact. I confirmed it when I woke up in a crazy subway during the entrance exam, and again when I escaped a deranged exhibition where they plucked out spectators’ eyes.

But now, Go Youngeun, standing on the stairs leading up to the ‘4th floor’, the main culprit behind this bizarre supermarket disappearance story…

“Are you… a person, a human…?”

She was too calm.

A pale face, unwavering even when seeing the screaming, questioning high school student.

No words.

Our expressionless peer stands on the stairs, looking down at us…

Wait.

‘…Standing on the stairs?’

Hold on!

Didn’t the revolving door disappear the moment we went up the stairs? That means we can’t get out to the 3rd floor on our own.

If so.

‘When did she get here…?’

No. From the beginning.

‘Why is she here?’

Go Youngeun could be one of the two agents who entered earlier. The fact that there were two of them was actually a hint. Agents of the Disaster Management Bureau usually move alone or as a team.

Two people usually means a senior-junior pair.

But.

Why on earth is a new agent from the Disaster Management Bureau standing alone on the stairs leading to the 4th floor, where people disappear?

Without a senior.

For at least a week.

Trapped on these… stairs.

“……”

A chilling premonition crept up my spine.

I opened my mouth.

“Agent?”

There was no answer.

“Chamois…?”

Go Youngeun on the stairs opened her mouth.

“Welcome to Rooky Mart!”

I grabbed the high school student and pushed him behind me.

And I grabbed the door.

“Agent.”

“Thank you always, customer!”

The expressionless figure stumbles down the stairs.

Go Youngeun.

No, an employee… in Go Youngeun’s form.

‘Damn it…!’

I was about to open the door, grab the high school student, and bolt, but then I realized something strange.

‘Sound.’

There’s no creaking sound.

…Go Youngeun’s clothes aren’t the employee uniform either. It was still the agent uniform.

If so…

‘Contamination?’

I checked the figure on the stairs again.

Go Youngeun’s appearance, a definite human form, was coming down the stairs.

“……Hold the doorknob.”

“Yes, yes?!”

I rushed forward.

And just as Go Youngeun stepped onto the landing, I grabbed and subdued her.

“…!!”

“To Rooky Mart…”

It works.

It was still definitely a human body.

…Then!

With one hand pressing down on her shoulder, my other hand pulled out the remaining Blue Soda Churro from the tattoo on my wrist.

And I somehow shoved it into Go Youngeun’s open mouth.

“!”

The other person didn’t struggle. They just tried to keep walking and repeat the same line somehow.

And in the process, due to the naturally moving teeth, the churro was crushed, and at least some of it must have gone down her esophagus into her stomach.

I watched that scene, sweating cold…

A moment later.

“Ugh, gaaaaah!”

Go Youngeun began to vomit water crazily.

I somehow patted her back. Black water pooled on the stair landing.

It wasn’t enough water to choke me to the level I experienced when I lived on Brown’s talk show for a month, but… it was a bizarre and strange sight enough to scare the high school student.

I supported Go Youngeun as she finally vomited water close to blue, lost strength, and collapsed.

“Haaah, haaaah, huff……”

“Agent.”

I called out to my colleague.

“……!”

Her eyes, now clear, looked at me.

And her pupils dilated, beginning to tremble wildly.

“…No, Nolu-ssi.”

Her reason had returned.

Reason enough to react to the title ‘Agent’ and to call me by my nickname instead of my name because we were in a ghost story.

‘Thank goodness…’

“U-Uwaaaah!!”

“…?!”

Ugh!

I hastily grabbed Go Youngeun as she suddenly crawled and tried to go up the stairs again.

“Haaaaah, ugh, this damn mart! The hallucinations are so real! Argh!”

“……”

“I-I won’t fall for it. You’re dead, Nolu-ssi is dead…”

Ah.

Right.

“Um, I’m not dead. Agent.”

“…?!”

“I was assigned the same mission as you.”

“?!”

It took several more tens of minutes to convince Go Youngeun, who thought I had disappeared into a ghost story for a month and was presumed dead, that I was perfectly alive and had been deployed as a spy…

“Th-thank you… I really owe you my life.”

“You’re welcome.”

Fortunately, as soon as Go Youngeun regained her composure, she cross-referenced some situational information with me and understood the situation.

It seemed harder to explain without leaking strange information to the high school civilian.

I looked at the now empty churro wrapper and felt a strange impression.

‘This churro… it’s truly remarkable.’

During Brown’s late-night talk show, things were so crazy and urgent that I didn’t pay much attention, but if it could purify contamination in one go like this, it was an incredibly amazing item.

‘It’s too good for this world to be recorded in the Records of Darkness Exploration…’

Anyway, for now, escaping this mad mart was the priority.

Still, with a person, and a dependable colleague at that, joining us, I felt a little energized.

So, first things first.

I moved slightly aside and clearly showed Go Youngeun the door leading to the 3rd-floor mart.

“Can you see the entrance?”

“……”

Go Youngeun nodded.

“Yes.”

Phew.

“To be precise, I can’t see the door itself, but I can see light coming through the crack. …If someone opens it, I think I could get out.”

“Then it’s fine.”

The moment I thought it was a relief, Go Youngeun covered her face with one hand.

“But… I won’t be able to leave the mart anyway.”

“Huh?”

“…Because I damaged merchandise.”

“…! It’s fine. We’re outside the mart here, so unless you were witnessed eating food…”

“No. I got caught breaking something in the mart.”

“……”

“It wasn’t me, it was another agent, but I guess it was just processed as if we did it together.”

I was silent for a moment, then asked.

“…Where is that senior agent?”

“They died.”

“……”

“No, I think they died. …They went up there.”

Go Youngeun pointed to the stairs.

“Their family went missing here, it seems. The last trace was them going up to the 4th floor… they came here with the intention of going in there from the start.”

“No, I don’t even want to use honorifics. Are you crazy? Why did you drag me in when you died alone…? Ah.”

“……”

“Anyway, I blocked my ears and sat here as soon as that person opened the 4th-floor door. …But I could still hear it.”

The jingle.

And soon after, she became ‘like an employee’.

“……”

“Excuse me.”

“You can call me Grape.”

“Yes. ‘Agent Grape’.”

Go Youngeun rubbed her face, then looked up.

Her expression was one of resolve.

“I’m hopeless anyway, so I’ll be a decoy when you two leave. I was trapped here and almost starved to death from contamination, so that much…”

“No.”

I hesitated for a moment, then stepped back, grabbed the high school student, and pushed him forward.

“Uh-oh? Agent…?”

“Could I get some help instead? …I hurt my ankle.”

“Ah.”

We barely managed to persuade the high school student, who kept saying he was scared and wouldn’t spit it out, to take the candy out of his mouth for a moment.

And when I earnestly handed over the emergency kit I had brought, Go Youngeun, with twenty times more professional skill than me, stabilized the high school student’s ankle and administered first aid.

“But won’t eating that candy just interfere with this? Um, the candy…”

“Just keep it in for a few hours.”

I soothed the high school student, who had once again reached the brink of panic with depleted mental and physical strength.

And I pulled out the lure.

“Let’s eat this first.”

“…!! Food…!”

The high school student’s eyes widened by about double.

The instant meals, taken out as if they had been in my bag, vanished into the mouths of the three of us in an instant.

‘Since we’re not in the mart, we can finally eat.’

These were things we couldn’t take out even in the food court because we could only eat ‘safe’ food.

Even though I only took out items that weren’t strongly scented just in case, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything so fast in my life.

I emptied a carton of sterilized milk in 2 seconds and gulped down a piece of castella in about 30 seconds.

‘Now I feel like I can live.’

And then I put the high school student to sleep.

I wanted to collapse and sleep for a few hours too, but talking with my equally haggard colleague was the priority for now.

We shared the information we knew and chatted for a while to replenish our mental strength.

“Nolu… no, Agent Grape, you’re always so well-prepared. I just brought a useless mart floor plan.”

‘But the 3rd floor was too big, so the information was too general and sparse to be useful,’ Go Youngeun muttered bitterly.

“I even brought coins from other dark places just in case, but they don’t seem to count as currency here…”

Wait a minute.

“You have a floor plan?”

“Yes. It’s included in the regular survey team’s preparations. …They want us to investigate places that haven’t been explored yet, if possible.”

“Could you show it to me?”

“Of course.”

Go Youngeun took out a thick, folded pamphlet-like paper from her small backpack.

On the printed building floor plan, I saw various handwritten notes and drawings added by people in different colors.

‘…The notes of Disaster Management Bureau agents.’

“……”

I looked at it as if possessed, and then discovered one location.

A separately marked store.

There are some crazy bastards who think this is useful, but it’s suicide. Don’t go there.

“…Agent.”

“What you said earlier. ‘Currency to pay’.”

“Yes? Yes.”

“We might be able to get that separately.”

I was about to point to a spot with my finger but held back for a moment. It was because I thought the other person might feel repulsed or be startled.

Instead, I explained it verbally.

“Among the locations marked on the map you gave me, I see a useful store. There’s a hint.”

“……”

However, Go Youngeun took a deep breath and shook her head.

“I… I’m sorry, but I object. The 3rd floor is too big, and I don’t know how long it would take to get there. And, I’m a bit scared of how long it would take to find the door back to these stairs when we return.”

Cold sweat beaded on Go Youngeun’s calm face.

And looked as if she was trying hard to hide her fear.

“You two should go when it reopens. I’ll… wait for rescue. Right now, unless we have other items to ward off employees or danger…”

That’s the thing.

“We have it now.”

“…!”

“Do you remember? It’s something you’ve used before.”

I took out an item from my inventory tattoo for the first time in a long while.

An item that could now be used as our party had become three, perfectly matching the recommended number of people.

…There was no Bronze Agent to worry about.

[Easy and Fast Candle Making Kit]

I held the ‘Mysterious Candle Kit’ item box and smiled slightly for the first time in three days, genuinely.

“Let’s make a candle again.”

This candle-making item, which contributed significantly to escaping the ‘Mansion of the Blind’, was finally at a point where it could be reused.

A dark stair landing.

Three people stood hunched over on the floor in the narrow space.

I spread the black paper enclosed in the box on the stair landing and drew complex patterns to make the candle.

And I suggested it.

“Let’s draw a card.”

“Whooooo.”

“Wow…”

Go Youngeun and the high school student, in turn, looked at the back of the cards and randomly drew one.

The keyword that would become the candle’s attribute was decided.

[Confusion]

[Dream]

‘Not bad.’

The order of keywords is good. …It somehow seems related to their current state too.

Anyway, it was now time to choose the last card. I looked at the cards with their faces revealed.

Honor, Healing, Meditation, Wound, Lie, Anger, Obstruction, Protection, Strike, Gaze…

‘Last time I chose Lie.’

With the keywords of Honor, Obstruction, and Lie, we tricked the exhibition guide machines and pretended to be customers who had rightfully paid the admission fee.

‘Then this time.’

I didn’t hesitate and picked one out.

[Protection]

A card depicting two hands carefully cradling a sparkling, pale purple crystal ball.

I burned all three completed cards to make ash, applied it over the crayon outline of the candle I had drawn, as if painting, and then folded the paper.

Just like I had done before.

And after some waiting.

“It’s finished.”

“O-Oh, wow.”

A pale indigo candle rolled out of the paper into my hand.

Of course, I can’t use this, and the minor who’s injured her leg and living on nostalgia definitely can’t.

And even if that weren’t the case, isn’t there an experienced person here?

I turned to Go Youngeun and handed her the candle.

“Please do it again this time.”

“…Yes.”

Go Youngeun picked up the finished candle.

“This time, I’ll do it even better.”

Leaving a strange nuance.

The candle, lit in my colleague’s hand, began to burn.

The supplicant, holding this candle, must reveal a protected form towards the confused entity, empowered by the authority to induce dreams.

A blessing is bestowed upon the supplicant holding the candle.

Visitor in the mist.

Whoosh.

The candlelight illuminated us.

“Ah…”

I took the high school student and stood behind Go Youngeun.

It was reminiscent of when Brown turned off the lights, but with a colder, lighter feeling.

It was as if a cool mist embraced us, following the candlelight…

“……”

We slowly opened the door and exited to the 3rd floor.

Our figures, holding the lamp, should have been conspicuous in the dark store, but strangely, they naturally blended in as if in a fog.

And we ran into an employee.

“Hic.”

I covered the high school student’s mouth, who had made a sound.

The employee creaked and approached us…

“……”

And smoothly passed by.

“Ha.”

Go Youngeun gasped for breath.

But it was mixed with relief rather than fear.

‘Thank goodness.’

Once again, the alien store’s item did its job perfectly.

But the item’s time limit was stricter than at the exhibition.

…Because we had to brace ourselves for a long time until the reopening.

“The candle will end when it burns out, so if we want to use it again after the store reopens, we’ll have to move quickly.”

“Yes. Where should we go?”

“Here.”

I pointed to a location on the floor plan Go Youngeun had brought and showed her.

Go Youngeun, who was looking carelessly, gasped.

“…! W-wait…”

“It’s fine. Let’s move.”

“……”

She was already holding the candle, and we couldn’t wrestle or argue and make it go out.

In the end, Go Youngeun began to move, gesturing that she had a lot to say.

Phew.

‘Thank you…’

She had every right to.

Because my destination was…

[Sell Flesh, Rooky Mart]

It was that strange event store with the crazy sign.

“……”

If other stores seemed to mimic past Lucky Mart event stalls, those with such grotesque signs looked like they had appeared as errors.

In this case, there were dozens of grills lined up on a plain white floor, and nothing else.

And in the silence, something was sizzling and burning…

“Hic.”

“Quiet.”

I put my hand on the high school student’s shoulder as he started to tremble.

It wasn’t that the kid was overreacting.

“Ha.”

On the grill displayed right in front of the event store.

Blackened pieces of meat were being roasted as a demonstration… It was clearly the shape of a familiar bipedal animal placed haphazardly.

…Disposed missing persons.

‘I’m going to throw up.’

But I held it in.

And above it hung a banner.

…Just as the agent’s notes said.

Instant BBQ Event!

Participate alive and receive a gift certificate no matter what

Gift certificate.

Why would anyone do something crazy like get a gift certificate here? You’ll attract attention and get attacked by long-term missing persons. They’re already hardly human, so rescue is abandoned.

But we were now, temporarily, able to smoothly avoid attention and were protected by the mist within this mart.

I gently tapped Go Youngeun’s shoulder.

“Could you please move aside for a moment? So I can stand in front of an empty grill.”

“Yes? …Wait a minute. This…”

“It’s fine.”

Actually, it’s not fine.

I feel a strong urge for someone else to do all of this instead of me…

‘If I didn’t feel that, would I be human?’

But.

One of my party members was someone who had been trapped and contaminated on the stairs for over a week, and the other was a civilian minor.

Meaning they were not suitable subjects to pass the work on to.

Moreover, this was also an opportunity.

‘I have to get the gift certificate.’

Only if I took the initiative would the currency I could use proactively come into my hands.

‘If I want to push my opinion through to escape with what I get here, I have to do it.’

I gritted my teeth.

…First, I injected myself with a Happy Maker to prevent shock. My hands were trembling.

‘Calm down, calm down.’

And then, trying hard not to let my hands shake, I calmly picked up an item I had casually snatched on the way here.

A massive butcher’s knife.

Its sharp blade glinted in the light.

“That…!”

“It’s fine to use items, as long as they’re restored to their original undamaged state, they won’t be perceived as purchased.”

“That’s not the point, no, Agent…!”

I brought the butcher’s knife down on my right arm.