Chapter 6: Shopping Mall (1)

[6. Free vouchers for guests are issued to your mobile phone every day, so please use them within the limit in the shopping area. Any amount over the limit must be repaid somehow. Without fail.]

“Aaaaaagh! Aaaagh! Don’t let go! Don’t let go!”

The high school student thrashed wildly in panic.

His face looked young, but he was far from small.

Even Han-su struggled to pull him up, his brow tightening sharply with the effort.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

“Stay still!”

“U-uaaaagh! Monster! Monster!”

Before anyone realized it, the clown Security had appeared beyond the narrow path, charging toward them with one enormous, glaring eye.

Han-su forgot all about speaking politely and shouted, but there was no calming the already terrified high school student.

The boy clawed and pulled at him so frantically that deep scratches appeared across Han-su’s forearm, beads of blood welling along the skin.

Seeing that, Su-myeon grew uneasy as well.

‘What happens if the protagonist dies...?’

If this was simply a game that had somehow become reality, then even Han-su, once the protagonist, was now nothing more than another person within it.

If he died, they could simply leave him behind and continue on to clear the next stage.

‘But what if I’ve actually entered the game world...?’

The instant the protagonist died, everything would reset to the beginning.

The game would restart from the start, just as it normally did.

But then what would happen to Su-myeon, someone who had never originally existed inside the game?

If he was lucky, perhaps he would be sent back to reality.

But what if—

‘Would I just disappear, as though I’d never existed at all...?’

Su-myeon had always believed he wanted nothing more out of life than to lie down somewhere and stretch his legs out in peace.

Yet the moment he imagined his very existence being erased, a survival instinct far stronger than he had ever expected suddenly surged through him.

“Hold on tight!”

Su-myeon stepped back onto the narrow beam and crossed over again.

At the starting end, Han-su was lying flat on his stomach, desperately holding onto the high school student.

The clown Security’s face loomed closer and closer with every heavy step.

Its mouth was split all the way to its bulging cheekbones, and the teeth inside ground ceaselessly like the blades of a crusher.

One eye protruded so far from its socket that it looked ready to drop out at any moment. It took up almost half its face, yet the pupil inside was absurdly tiny.

And, just as Su-myeon had suspected, it was carrying what appeared to be Cheol-su’s severed arm.

“.......”

Even so, compared to seeing an actual piece of a human body, looking at the grotesque face of a monster still felt like staring at a prop.

It was several times easier to endure.

Avoiding the severed arm, Su-myeon fixed his gaze on the clown Security’s face instead.

Then he clenched his teeth once, forced himself to relax, bent down, reached toward the high school student, and shouted,

“It’s another day of bright smiles, isn’t it!”

They were rude guests trespassing in an employee-only area.

The clown Security had been stretching its enormous mouth even wider, apparently preparing to eject them.

Then it froze.

Right in front of them—no, practically on top of Han-su’s back—the clown Security slowly began closing the mouth it had opened impossibly wide.

“...You have a wonderful collection there. I, ugh....”

Su-myeon stretched one hand out and clamped it over the screaming high school student’s mouth, desperate not to provoke the clown Security after barely managing to calm it.

Overwhelmed with fear, the boy promptly bit down hard on Su-myeon’s hand.

Su-myeon froze for a second at the sheer thoughtlessness of the act, but immediately forced himself to continue, desperately searching for something that might flatter the clown Security.

“Up there! I think it would look wonderful if you displayed it up there. Could you show me right now?”

Why is this crazy bastard biting my hand so hard?!

Suppressing the urge to scream that directly into the boy’s face, Su-myeon instead shouted toward the clown Security and raised his other hand, pointing to the highest, farthest spot he could see.

The clown Security, which only moments earlier had been threatening them with its horrific appearance, tilted its head with a long creeeak.

Then, without warning, it reached one hand toward Su-myeon.

“...Are you giving this to me?”

What it held out was a Rose Coin, its shape somehow familiar now.

The moment Su-myeon responded, the clown Security’s neck abruptly snapped upright with a boing that sounded like something out of a children’s toy.

Then its entire appearance changed in an instant.

It was still the clown Security, but now it looked almost cute.

Its eyes had become little black beans, its mouth was tiny, and its colorful makeup made it resemble a toy doll.

It looked almost like a joker illustration from a deck of playing cards.

The high school student, who had finally managed to pull half his body back up and was now gripping the narrow beam with one arm, seemed to calm down slightly after seeing the clown Security’s transformed face.

“......Thank you....”

After finally hauling the high school student all the way up, Su-myeon somehow managed to offer a proper thanks and accepted the coin as politely as he could.

The clown Security seemed delighted.

It bounced away with cheerful boinging sounds and headed toward the spot Su-myeon had pointed out.

No matter how cute it looked now, the severed hand still clutched in its grasp—and the streak of blood trailing behind it—sent a chill down Su-myeon’s spine.

“H-huh, huuuuh, thank... thank you....”

“Stop crying and get up the stairs!”

The moment the high school student made it across the beam, he looked ready to burst into tears again.

Su-myeon cut him off and shoved him hard in the back.

The others had apparently already gone ahead toward the stairs and were nowhere to be seen.

Only Go Ju-hee had stayed behind. She grabbed the high school student’s hand and hurried him toward the staircase.

Su-myeon hesitated for a moment, then removed one of his shoes.

“...What are you doing?”

Han-su, who had been about to head straight for the stairs, looked at him in confusion.

The clown Security was still climbing toward the very top, so it had yet to notice what they were doing.

“I asked him to show it to me, and now I’m just disappearing. If I leave like that, I’d feel bad, so I should at least make it look like I fell.”

Han-su looked as though he had several different things he wanted to say about that.

Su-myeon ignored him and dropped one shoe into the darkness below.

With that final bit of deception complete, the two of them ran for the stairs as well.

[ Arcade ]

Once again, after climbing the stairs, they found the location plainly marked on a sign.

They were now on the seventh basement floor.

“Come on, stop... stop it. Stop!”

“Huuuuuh. Uwaaaah. I was scared. Huuuh....”

Beyond the sobbing high school student lay a vast space stretching out before them like a shopping mall after closing time.

Su-myeon checked the newly appeared safety [N O V E L I G H T] rule on his phone and slipped the coin into his Inventory.

The high school student was still crying.

“Uwaaaah....”

Go Ju-hee, who had spent quite a while trying and failing to soothe him, eventually gave an awkward shrug.

[PM 12:37]

...And before they knew it, the scheduled hour had already passed.

Would the remaining people ultimately fail to make it out?

Or had they found another way to escape on their side?

There was no way to know.

Dwelling on it would only be bad for his mental health.

Su-myeon shook his head and dropped into a crouch in front of the high school student, who was still sitting there bawling.

The boy still looked young, but seeing someone built like a mountain sniffling like that was admittedly a little funny.

“.......”

Without saying a word, Su-myeon raised the hand that still clearly bore the boy’s bite marks.

The moment the high school student saw it, he burst into even louder sobs.

And because he was built like a mountain, the volume of his crying was no joke either.

“Huuuuuh, thank... no, I’m sorry... ah... but still, thank you....”

“Enough. Go buy me coffee and a bandage. With your own money.”

Su-myeon spoke while showing him the newly appeared safety rule.

If someone accused him of shaking down a kid, he wouldn’t exactly have a defense.

Still, Su-myeon had a reason for wanting to save today’s voucher.

He only had one shoe left.

It had been an old sneaker to begin with, its sole already worn nearly smooth. If he wanted any hope of running properly, buying a new pair of shoes had to come first.

“Uh... uh....... Uh, yes...! Yes. Yes! Understood! Wh-what kind of coffee...?”

“Something sweet.”

Now that he had been given a concrete way to repay the favor, the high school student finally seemed to regain some composure.

The fact that he was still sniffling and wiping away tears yet had enough presence of mind to ask what kind of coffee Su-myeon wanted suggested he wasn’t entirely ordinary either.

True to his background as a former baseball club member, he was big and strong.

But among the cast, he was also the youngest—a first-year high school student.

Lim Ha-min.

Su-myeon already knew his name, of course, but he couldn’t exactly behave as though they had met before.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“Ah... I-I’m Lim Ha-min!”

Ha-min practically shouted his name, then hesitated before asking,

“What about you, hyung...?”

“Han Su-myeon.”

Ha-min nodded at Su-myeon’s answer, then went over to Han-su and started talking to him as well.

Later, those two were destined to become as close as brothers, so Su-myeon watched them with a strange sense of satisfaction.

Since Han-su had saved Ha-min when he was in danger, it seemed the two had become close earlier than expected.

‘The people who are supposed to hate each other and the people who are supposed to get along are all progressing way ahead of schedule.’

He couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The others also seemed to have checked the new safety rule and confirmed the voucher balance displayed in their mobile Inventories.

Apparently, they still hadn’t adapted to supernatural phenomena enough to even consider using their phone Inventories like actual bags.

‘...For now, maybe I just won’t tell them.’

After that, they all headed to the convenience store together.

Everyone received 100,000 won per day, and any unused amount disappeared at the end of the day.

Since the rule itself was simple enough, most people seemed to be stocking up on food and drinks.

“Having to repay it in some other way... doesn’t sound like they mean anything normal, does it...?”

At Go Ju-hee’s voice, which predictably came after she finished reading the safety rule, Su-myeon nodded.

“Wouldn’t they tear off an arm or something, like what happened to that guy earlier?”

Even though it was only lunchtime, exhaustion suddenly washed over him.

Su-myeon rubbed his eyes.

The instant he heard footsteps approaching during that tiny moment of rest, he felt like bursting into tears the way Ha-min had earlier.

Could you please just leave me alone?

Even thinking that, timid Su-myeon couldn’t bring himself to actually say it.

Instead, he reluctantly lifted his head toward the person approaching.

“If not for you, Mr. Su-myeon, we would never have been able to save him. That student survived entirely because of you.”

Han-su thanked him in his usual blunt manner.

Su-myeon gave a tired nod.

“Yeees....”

I feel like I’ve received more attention in the last hour or two than I have in my entire life.

I’m exhausted.

Too tired to respond properly, Su-myeon accepted the thanks with only minimal enthusiasm.

Then Go Ju-hee added,

“Not just Ha-min. You saved Mr. Han-su too, Mr. Su-myeon. You probably didn’t see it, but that clown Security was about to swallow Mr. Han-su whole as well.”

She wasn’t wrong.

But it was definitely not something Su-myeon wanted emphasized if that meant receiving even more attention.

Still, if he had to find one upside to all this, then maybe after everything that had happened, one of them would save him later when he was the one in danger...?

Watching Go Ju-hee and Han-su settle down nearby, Su-myeon answered indifferently,

“It’s fine. Everyone made it up safely. Let’s leave it at that.”

He even waved a hand as though brushing the matter aside.

And since things had come this far, he decided he might as well resolve the question that had been bothering him.

Had he simply entered the game?

Or had the game itself become reality?

Ever since the thought had occurred to him back on the narrow beam, he hadn’t been able to shake it.

At first, he had figured that either way, he still needed to escape this insane hotel, so he could worry about it once he reached the ground floor.

But...

Depending on which of those two possibilities was true, the fate awaiting his very existence would be completely different.

‘If this game simply became reality... then once I get out of the hotel, I should be able to go home and return to my normal life.’

But if he had actually entered the game....

His head began to ache the deeper he thought about it.

After a brief silence, Su-myeon finally spoke.

“Um, there’s something I want to ask... a really random question....”

Seeing the serious expression on his face, Go Ju-hee and Han-su both turned their full attention to him.