Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 138

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

How much of my body do I have to cut off and put on the grill for this damn mart ghost story to consider it ‘barbecue’?

I pondered, ranging from my wrist to my shoulder.

But the part to cut had been decided from the beginning.

‘My right arm.’

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

If I cut off my left arm, I couldn’t use the tattoo.

And since I’m almost ambidextrous, I could use whichever arm remained.

So there was only one conclusion.

‘Cut off a part of my right arm.’

Of course, cutting through an adult forearm, nearly 10 cm in diameter, bone and all, with a knife, was insane.

Naturally, it wouldn’t cut in one go.

‘A chainsaw would have been better.’

Thud, thud.

I tore through my arm almost like ripping a cross-section with the massive butcher’s knife. The sounds of the person in front and next to me whimpering were heard amidst the spattered blood.

No pain, but sensation.

That feeling of the arm’s nerves being severed.

Cold sweat trickled down my back, and my head felt dull. The blunt psychological shock of fear, terror.

It came, even though I had definitely injected the Happy Maker.

‘…Am I developing a resistance?’

Or perhaps the candle’s ‘protection’ extended even to the Happy Maker’s effects. No, maybe it was just my imagination.

The important thing was that I didn’t go into shock and could still move.

And…

Thud.

Finally, the moment the knife came down.

It came off.

“…!!”

It’s done.

As I held the completely separated right arm in my left arm, I pressed what I had prepared beforehand to the severed surface with my hand.

The Bloodsucker Knife.

‘To think I’d 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 cut surface on the grill.

If I had sensation, I would have fainted.

And when I thought the bleeding was sufficiently stopped, I began to move again before I could bleed to death.

“Wh-what is this? What are you…?”

“Just a moment.”

Thud.

I cut the detached piece in half again. I had worked according to the estimated size of the various parts already on the grill.

And without a moment to react, I placed one of the cut pieces on the grill.

Sizzle.

It makes a sound and cooks, no, burns.

It’s burning… it’s burning.

‘It’s a piece of meat.’

It’s no longer mine.

And as soon as the situation is handled, as soon as I leave this crazy mart, I will drink the C-grade regeneration potion from Daydream Inc.

Then everything will be fine…

Calm down. I sweated cold, staring at the grill with unfocused eyes.

And after a maddening amount of time.

Ding.

In the ‘Sell Flesh, Rooky Mart’ store, where dozens of grills were senselessly arranged, a sound echoed from something that looked like one of the grills.

The counter.

On what looked like a makeshift cash register, a rectangular white cash envelope labeled ‘Thank You for Participating in the Event’ was placed.

I managed to open the envelope with one hand.

A gift certificate, looking like some shoddy counterfeit money mimicking Korean and English, was revealed.

[50,000 won]

In a normal mart, it would have been an incredibly generous bait for event participation.

However, whether it was enough money in the current situation was unknown.

“What, what is this? What are you…?”

“Just a moment.”

One more time.

I repeated this process.

Only this time, it wasn’t me, but the high school student who put the remaining piece on another grill.

“Hmph, hmph…”

The high school student gritted his teeth, almost fainting. It hurt inside, but there was nothing to be done. Go Youngeun had to hold the candle, and I wouldn’t be counted since I had already participated.

And only after receiving another 50,000 won gift certificate could he put the Nostalgia Candy in his mouth.

‘Ha.’

I endured until then, just in case there was a judgment error.

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

The magic of Nostalgia.

“…It’s okay. See? I’m fine again, aren’t I?”

“Haaah, haaaah…”

The high school student couldn’t bear to look at my re-formed arm and couldn’t even nod his head.

Go Youngeun’s face became incredibly pale, but she was conscious of the candle and couldn’t bring herself to look back or react strongly.

…She probably knew I had Daydream’s special regeneration potion, so it ended at this level.

“…Agent, did you just drink a potion?”

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

Go Youngeun’s back twitched again.

“Only my right arm is gone, so even in an emergency, there won’t be any problem with escape. Rest assured.”

“You’re talking about that now…! Phew, …Yes.”

I was grateful for her composure.

Anyway, by finally taking the Nostalgia Candy I had been saving until the last moment I could bear, I barely recovered from not having proper sleep or meals for three days.

And now my condition was…

“……”

‘Wow.’

This is crazy.

My restored mind spun wildly, sounding danger alarms.

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

‘I haven’t been in my right mind since… day two.’

I thought I had left the minor on the second-floor food court and had searched the mart thoroughly for the Bronze Agent, going everywhere alone.

But that wasn’t it.

‘If it’s a place that can be searched in just an hour or two, it wouldn’t be a place to hide in the first place.’

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

Especially considering the endlessly repeating 3rd floor.

‘My judgment was at rock bottom.’

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

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

“Yes.”

Even as I moved, hidden behind Go Youngeun’s candlelight, and cleaned the blood off the butcher’s knife and put it back on the original display stand, inferences kept sparking in my head.

Mistakes.

Rebuttals to several logical conclusions I had carelessly jumped to.

-Will the Bronze Agent really escape after three days?

Let’s recheck the exploration record I barely recalled.

Exploration Record #3?

Dispatch agents entered the mart around 7 PM after receiving a civilian rescue request. (Dispatcher: ???)

Rooky Mart’s business ended early due to ??? reasons. A sudden situation occurred, and contact with the agent was lost for three days.

Result: Rescue failed. The agent returned alone.

First rebuttal.

-The entry time is different.

We entered the mart after 8 PM.

However, the case above states entry around 7 PM.

Of course, the entry time might have changed due to my variable. Considering that entry was delayed by about an hour because I talked and received items, it roughly matched.

The important thing is that because of this, the current situation has changed from that case.

‘I shouldn’t just fit it into that case without question.’

And the second rebuttal.

-The agent’s escape time is not specified.

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

In other words, my conviction that the mart would reopen after three days was almost a matter of faith.

‘…Phew.’

And…

Let’s get out of this fear and think more rationally.

From the beginning.

‘It’s strange for the Disaster Management Bureau to allow a newly hired civil servant to be thrown into a high-grade ghost story all of a sudden.’

This isn’t Daydream Inc., after all.

They don’t send agents into a crazy wave-form ghost story comparable to a Daydream B-grade barehanded.

…Unless there’s a definite safety device.

‘If I judge based on that…’

…Something clicks.

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

And since a new agent might carelessly use this item in a panic, this option is usually left to a senior.

So…

If the Bronze Agent really had such an item.

‘Then they would genuinely try their best to take me with them and escape.’

This was a matter of responsibility.

“……”

“Agent Grape?”

“Please wait a moment.”

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

Separated from the new recruit.

No unspoken agreed-upon location, no direct communication method. Just a glance meant ‘see you upstairs.’

A sudden incident in a high-grade ghost story.

A veteran’s on-site judgment, having met many new agents…

“……”

Ah.

“Agent.”

“Yes.”

“I might be able to find the location of the senior agent who came in with me.”

“……!”

With the clear statement, ‘It’s easier to escape if we join up with the veteran,’ Go Youngeun agreed to further exploration using the candle.

Our destination was…

“This escalator, right?”

“Yes.”

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

It’s here.

“……”

The three of us went down to the 1st floor and stood in front of the escalator. The quiet rails were stopped, in darkness.

But it was an escalator we had never used.

The high school student and I had only used the escalator on the opposite side.

The downward one, going from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. We climbed it in reverse.

‘And I’ve only used that one ever since.’

Every time I went exploring, I would scan between the escalators and the floor, hoping to find even a fishing line from an item I might have used.

That’s how desperate I was.

However…

‘A normal person would conceptually use the upward escalator when trying to go to an upper floor.’

The Bronze Agent must have expected me to use this escalator.

I gave the high school student another Nostalgia Candy and stood in front of him.

‘…Three left.’

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

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

“Agent. Could you please go up the escalator?”

“…I’ll walk slowly. Be careful.”

“Yes.”

Go Youngeun took the lead and got on the escalator.

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

“Phew.”

Let’s think.

‘Just as I deduced, the Bronze Agent would have also tried to infer my behavior pattern…’

And there was a high probability that they would have judged more rationally than I, who was mentally broken.

Unless they had encountered a crazy situation where a person was being ground alive in a blender, they had to hide below for tens of minutes, and the high school student they had to rescue broke his ankle…

So, I reversed my own actions to infer theirs.

-New agent. Has experience with ghost stories but seems clumsy due to trauma.

If I, being such a person, had moved more passively on the first day, what method would I have chosen?

‘I would have entered the 2nd floor later.’

If I hadn’t rushed to the 2nd floor but had slowly endured as much as possible in hiding spots on the 1st floor, moving like an ‘ordinary new recruit’ who was flustered and frozen.

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

But what if they had marked another place as safer?

And what if they also thought that my novice agent party might panic if the Bronze Agent themselves wasn’t on the 2nd floor?

If so…

There was only one answer.

‘Inform them beforehand, before they reach the 2nd floor.’

“……”

I looked at the escalator’s advertisement board.

Underneath the strikingly colored red advertisement board, a receipt was subtly attached, with only its tip showing, as if it were part of the panel.

A notice from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.

“Uh-oh?”

It was part of the mart that was easy to overlook, but to an insider, it was a sign that would strike like lightning.

Using the rustling of my party as background noise, I tore it off and unfolded it.

On the back, thick, hastily scrawled letters.

Season-off Winter Camping Big Sale

3rd Floor Left End Wall. 12th.

“I think I found it.”

I caught the signal left by the Bronze Agent.

We quickly moved through the candlelight and mist.

The three of us moved as if playing a three-legged race.

“12th, right? 12th.”

“Yes…!”

The high school student, realizing he might meet his friend, also gritted his teeth and eagerly quickened his pace.

The repeating space of the giant mart. Passing through endlessly eerie stores, the place we were about to arrive at was…

[Season-off Winter Camping Big Sale]

Finally revealed itself.

A store space displayed like a camping scene with tents, campfires, burners, and chairs.

Zzzzzzt.

One side of the tent opened slightly, and an anxious face looked around, eyes darting.

“Hey! Kim Jaehoon!”

The high school student, who was in the candlelight, rushed out.

It made sense.

He was the friend of the kid the Bronze Agent had taken with him.

“Oh, oh-oh-oh!”

“Are you okay?”

“Haaaah…”

The two kids cried and held onto each other.

No, I was a little wary because they were making noise outside the candlelight, wondering if something dangerous might come, but there was nothing unusual.

‘It seems the Bronze Agent took precautions.’

It was a relief. Go Youngeun and I also relaxed slightly and approached the two.

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

“Let’s do that.”

Towards the safe zone the veteran agent had found.

“Gulp.”

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

The high school student handled by the Bronze Agent looked as if he had suffered emotionally but showed no signs of serious injury or exhaustion.

‘It seems she took good care of him.’

Indeed, a veteran would be more skilled at rescue than a novice agent.

I watched the two, feeling a little sorry for the high school student I was in charge of.

My high school student, who looked perfectly fine with the Nostalgia candy in his mouth, managed a smile and spoke.

“Still, I’m glad you’re safe too.”

“……Yeah.”

…

It’s a little strange.

I read signs of anxiety and panic on the face of the high school student handled by the Bronze Agent.

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

Go Youngeun whispered to me softly.

“Agent Grape, um… the person you were looking for, it’s not that high school student, is it?”

“……No.”

“Then where is that agent?”

“……”

A strange and unsettling premonition.

‘No way.’

I met the eyes of the high school student the Bronze Agent was in charge of. The other person flinched.

The reason we came here.

“Where is the agent?”

“……”

Tears suddenly streamed from the high school student’s eyes as he sat in the tent.

“Th-that agent, th-they got caught by an employee and were chased away…! L-like, dozens of them, ugh, like…!”

“…!”

“A-And… I think they were caught.”

…

What?

“L-like, the employees… seemed to be dragging them somewhere, hmph…”

Three days trapped in the mart ghost story.

The Bronze Agent… had already become merchandise.