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

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I had been thinking about it from the moment I saw the mart floor plan.

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

I considered the range from wrist to shoulder.

But I had already decided on the target from the beginning.

‘Right arm.’

If I cut my legs, it would cause mobility problems.

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

And since I was close to 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 with a 10cm diameter, bone and all, with a knife was insane.

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

‘A chainsaw would have been better.’

Thunk, thunk.

I cut off my arm with a huge butcher’s knife, almost tearing through the cross-section. I could hear the people in front and beside me sobbing through the splashing blood.

There was no pain, but there was sensation.

The feeling of my arm’s nerves being severed.

Cold sweat ran down my back, and my head became fuzzy. The dull mental shock of fear and terror.

Even though I had clearly inserted Happy Maker, it still came.

‘…Am I building resistance?’

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

What mattered was that I didn’t die from shock and could still move.

And…

Thunk.

Finally, the moment I brought down the knife.

It fell off.

“…!!”

Done.

I tucked the completely severed right arm under my left arm while pressing something I had prepared beforehand against the cut surface with my hand.

Blood-sucking Knife.

‘To think I’d use this for hemostasis.’

Of course, this was a temporary measure.

Ignoring the knife vibrating as it consumed my blood, I removed the knife and pressed the cut surface against the grill.

If I had sensation, I would have fainted.

And when I thought I had adequately stopped the bleeding completely, I started moving again before dying from blood loss.

“What, what is this… Aaah!”

“Wait a moment.”

Thunk.

I cut the torn-off piece in half again. I was working according to the size I had gauged from the various body parts already on the grill.

And without giving anyone time to react, I placed one of the cut pieces on the grill.

Sizzle.

It made a sound as it cooked, no, burned.

It was burning… It was burning.

‘It’s just a chunk of meat.’

It’s not mine anymore.

And as soon as the situation was resolved and I got out of this crazy mart, I would drink Baekillmong Corporation’s C-grade regeneration medicine.

Then everything would be fine…

Stay calm. I stared at the grill with unfocused eyes while breaking out in cold sweat.

And after what felt like an insane amount of time.

Ding.

In the ‘Flesh-Selling Lucky Mart’ store with dozens of grills arranged without context, a sound rang out from something that had been there like one of the grills.

Counter.

At what looked like a simple checkout counter, there was a rectangular white cash envelope with ‘Thank you for the event’ written on it.

I barely managed to open the envelope with one hand.

A gift certificate that looked like a shoddy counterfeit bill, imitating Korean and English, was revealed.

[50000 won]

For a regular mart, this would be an incredibly generous event participation incentive.

However, whether this amount could be considered sufficient in the current situation was unknown.

“What, what is this? What’s happening right now…”

“Wait a moment.”

One more time.

I repeated this process.

However, this time it wasn’t me, but High School Student who put the remaining piece on another grill.

“Huh, huup…”

High School Student was almost about to faint but gritted their teeth. I felt sick about it, but there was no choice. Go Young-eun had to hold the candlelight, and I had already participated so I wouldn’t be counted.

Only after receiving another 50,000 won gift certificate could I put the Nostalgia Candy in my mouth.

‘Ha.’

I had held back until then in case there was a judgment error.

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

The magic of Nostalgia.

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

“Huuk, huuuuk…”

High School Student couldn’t bear to look at my regenerated arm and couldn’t even nod.

Go Young-eun’s face had become extremely pale, but she couldn’t turn around or show an intense reaction because she was mindful of the candlelight.

…Since she already knew I had Baekillmong’s special regeneration potion, that’s probably why it ended at that level.

“…Agent, did you just take the potion?”

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

Go Young-eun’s back flinched again.

“Since only my right arm is gone, even in the worst case, there shouldn’t be any problem with escaping. Don’t worry.”

“To be talking about that right now…! Hah, …yes.”

I was grateful for her composure.

Anyway, I finally took the Nostalgia Candy I had been saving until the last moment I could endure, and barely recovered from three days of not getting proper sleep and meals.

And now my condition is…

“…”

‘Wow.’

This is insane.

My mind, having regained composure, spun frantically and sounded danger signals.

I began to understand how cornered and insane I had been acting for the past three days.

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

I thought I had left the minor on the 2nd floor food court and went around alone searching every corner of the mart looking for the Bronze Agent.

But that’s not what happened.

‘A place that can be searched in just an hour or two isn’t a place worth hiding in the first place.’

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

Especially considering the 3rd floor that repeats endlessly beyond sight.

‘My judgment had hit rock bottom.’

It wasn’t just the High School Student who was panicking – I had also spent three days in a half-panicked state.

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

“Yes.”

While hiding behind Go Young-eun’s candlelight and moving my steps, while removing the blood from the butcher knife and repackaging it to place back on the original display stand, deductions continued to spark in my head like fireworks.

Mistakes.

Rebuttals to several logical conclusions I had carelessly made on my own.

-Does the Bronze Agent really escape after three days?

Let me recheck the exploration record I barely managed to recall.

First rebuttal.

-The entry time is different.

We entered the mart after 8 PM.

However, the above case shows entry around 7 PM.

Of course, the entry time could have changed due to the variable that is me. Considering that entry was delayed by about an hour due to talking with me and distributing items, it roughly matched.

The important point is that the current situation has changed from that case.

‘I shouldn’t force everything to fit that case.’

And the second rebuttal.

-It doesn’t say when the agent escapes.

‘Contact was lost for three days’ doesn’t mean the agent escapes after three days.

In other words, my conviction that the mart would resume business after three days was almost in the realm of faith.

‘…Phew.’

And…

Let me escape from this fear and think more rationally.

In the first place.

‘It’s strange for the Disaster Management Bureau to allow a newly hired government official to be thrown into a high-grade ghost story just like that.’

This isn’t Baekillmong Corporation or anything.

When exploring such insane wave ghost stories comparable to Baekillmong Grade B, they don’t send you in bare-handed.

…Unless there’s a certain safety device.

‘If I judge based on that…’

…There’s something I can grasp.

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

And since new employees might use these items carelessly in panic, such choices are usually left to seniors.

So…

If the Bronze Agent really was distributed such a thing.

‘Then they would really try to take me along and escape no matter what.’

This was a matter of responsibility.

“…”

“Grape Agent?”

“Please, wait just a moment.”

I stopped walking for a moment and began reconstructing the first day’s situation from the Bronze Agent’s perspective.

Separated from the new employee.

No mutually agreed meeting location, no direct communication method. Just one eye gesture saying ‘let’s meet upstairs.’

Emergency situation in a high-grade ghost story.

Field judgment from a veteran who had met many new agents…

“…”

Ah.

“Agent.”

“Yes.”

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

“…!”

With the clean statement that ‘joining with a veteran would make escape easier,’ Go Young-eun agreed to additional exploration using candles.

Our destination is…

“This escalator, right?”

“Yes.”

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

Here.

“…”

The three people came down to the 1st floor and stood in front of the escalator. The quiet rail sat in darkness, having stopped operating.

However, this is an escalator we’ve never used.

The High School Student and I had only used the opposite escalator.

The downward device going from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. We had crawled up that one in reverse.

‘And we only used that one afterward too.’

Every time I went out exploring, I would sweep the area between the escalators and the floor, hoping to salvage even the fishing line from items I had used.

Because I was that desperate.

However…

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

The Bronze Agent surely expected I would use this escalator.

I distributed another Nostalgia Candy to the High School Student and stood in front of it.

‘…Three left.’

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

Of course, I had to extract maximum efficiency from this moment of use.

“Agent. Could you go up the escalator?”

“…I’ll walk slowly. Be careful.”

“Yes.”

Go Young-eun took the lead and got on the escalator.

And we three people began walking up the escalator directly.

“Phew.”

Let me think.

‘As I deduced, the Bronze Agent would have tried to reason out my behavior patterns too…’

And they probably judged more rationally than me with my broken mental state.

If I hadn’t encountered the insane situation where a person was being ground alive in a mixer while I had to endure hiding underneath for dozens of minutes, and the high school student I had to rescue had a broken ankle…

That’s how I deduce my actions in reverse.

-New agent. Has experience with ghost stories but appears naive due to trauma.

What method would such a person have chosen if they had moved more passively on the first day?

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

Instead of rushing up to the 2nd floor, if I had slowly endured in hiding spots on the 1st floor as much as possible, moving while frozen and flustered like a ‘typical newbie.’

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

But what if he had marked another place as safer?

What if he also considered that a rookie agent like my companion might panic if Bronze Agent himself wasn’t on the 2nd floor?

Then…

There was only one answer.

‘Before arriving at the 2nd floor, he tells us in advance.’

“…”

I looked at the advertisement board on the escalator.

Below the eye-catching red advertisement board, a receipt was attached with just its edge showing, as if it were part of the panel.

A notice from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.

“Huh?”

It was part of the mart that could easily be passed by carelessly, but to personnel, it was a sign that would catch the eye like lightning.

I tore it off and unfolded it against the backdrop of my companion’s rustling.

On the back, thick, large scribbled writing.

Season-Off Winter Camping Big Sale

3rd Floor Left End Wall. 12th

“I think I found it.”

I had caught the signal Bronze Agent left behind.

I moved quickly through the candlelight and fog.

The three people moved as if they were in a three-legged race.

“The 12th one, right? The 12th.”

“Yes…!

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

The repetitive space of the giant mart. Passing through the eerily continuing stores, the place we were trying to reach was…

[Season-Off Winter Camping Big Sale]

It finally revealed itself.

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

Ziiiiik.

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

“Hey! Kim Jae-hoon!”

The high school student who had been in the candlelight rushed out.

It was understandable.

It was that guy’s friend whom Bronze Agent had taken.

“Uh, uhhhhh!”

“Are you okay?”

“Huhhhhh…”

The two guys cried while clinging to each other.

No, I was momentarily on guard in case something dangerous might come looking for the noise they were making outside the candlelight, but there was nothing particularly wrong.

‘It seems Bronze Agent took measures.’

That was fortunate. Go Young-eun and I also relaxed a bit and approached the two.

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

“Let’s do that.”

Toward the safe zone the veteran agent had found.

“Sniff.”

The two high school students finally calmed down after several minutes had passed.

The high school student Bronze Agent had taken seemed to have suffered mentally, but showed no signs of major injuries or exhaustion.

‘He must have taken good care of him.’

As expected, a veteran would be more skilled at rescue than a rookie agent.

I watched the two with a slightly apologetic feeling toward the high school student I had been in charge of.

My assigned high school student, who looked fine with a Nostalgia candy in his mouth, smiled with effort and spoke.

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

“…Yeah.”

…

Something’s a bit strange.

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

I thought it was natural since he had been wandering in the ghost story for days, but even considering that, it was somewhat… prominent.

Go Young-eun also whispered quietly to me.

“Grape Agent, that… the person you were looking for, that high school student obviously isn’t him, right?”

“…No.”

“Then where is that agent?”

“…”

I have a strange and ominous premonition.

‘Don’t tell me.’

I made eye contact with the high school student Bronze Agent had been in charge of. The other person’s eyes wavered.

The reason we came here.

“Where is the agent?”

“…”

Tears suddenly began pouring from the eyes of the high school student sitting in the tent.

“That, that agent, got, got caught by an employee and was chased away…! Like, like dozens of them, uh, uh, like!”

“…!”

“And, and… I think he was caught.”

…

What did he say.

“Like, the, the employees… seemed to drag him somewhere, huuuk.”

Three days trapped in the mart ghost story.

Bronze Agent… had already become merchandise.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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