“…Let’s go back to the emergency stairwell.”
“Yes.”
We walked under Go Yeongeun’s candlelight, and I cleaned the butcher’s knife of my blood, repacked it, and put it back where I found it. In the process, my mind flickered with new inferences.
Mistakes.
Counterarguments to the little ‘certainties’ I’d clung to so casually.
—Does Agent Bronze really escape on the third day?
Let’s re-check that exploration record I could somehow still remember.
Exploration Record #3[?]
An agent responded to a civilian distress call and entered the store around 7PM. (Agent : ???)
Result : Rescue failed. Agent returned alone.
First counterargument.
—The entry time is different.
We entered after 8 PM, while the record said 7PM.
Sure, maybe that changed because my presence delayed the schedule. He had to hand out items and explain the situation to me, among other things. So, we entered about an hour late, which could somewhat line up.
But the crucial point was still one thing. The situation wasn’t exactly the same.
‘I shouldn’t be forcing my situation to fit that record.’
Second counterargument.
It never said when the agent escaped.
‘Lost contact for three days’ didn’t necessarily mean the supermarket reopened on the third day.
So my certainty that business hours would definitely resume after three days was nothing more than a leap of faith.
‘…Phew.’
And…
Let’s think more rationally about the bigger picture.
Right. From the beginning…
‘Isn’t it odd that the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau would let a newly hired agent dive straight into a high-level ghost story?’
It’s not like this was Daydream Inc.
They wouldn’t send someone unprepared into a Fracture-sanctioned nightmare, roughly on par with a Daydream B-grade, unless there was some solid safeguard.
‘So if I reason from that premise…’
…There’s something that comes to mind.
Bureau agents would sometimes get assigned an item allowing ‘emergency escape’ from ghost stories below a certain level.
And with a newcomer, that item usually stayed under the senior’s control since a panicked rookie might misuse it.
In other words…
If Agent Bronze really was issued such an item, then.
‘He’d do everything he could to take me with him on that escape.’
It’s a matter of responsibility.
“……”
“Agent Grapes?”
“Just a moment, please.”
I paused and tried to piece together the first day’s events from Agent Bronze’s perspective.
A situation where he got separated from his new recruit.
No shared coordinates or direct communication method. Just that one glance of ‘I’ll see you upstairs’.
High-level ghost story with unexpected complications.
A veteran used to handling rookies…
“……”
Ah.
“Agent.”
“Yes?”
“I think I can figure out where my senior ended up.”
“…!”
After I neatly summed it up with, ‘Teaming up with a veteran will give us a better chance to escape,’ Go Yeongeun agreed to use the candle for further exploration.
Our destination…
“This specific escalator, right?”
“Yes.”
The escalator going from the first floor up to the second—
That’s the one.
“……”
All three of us descended to the first floor and stood in front of the escalator.
The still rails lay silent in the dark.
But this was an escalator we’d never used before.
The high schooler and I had only used the opposite escalator—the one that went from the second floor down to the first—while crawling up.
‘And that’s the only one I used.’
Any time I tried searching alone, I’d check between the escalators and the floor, hoping to recover the fishing line from the items we used. That’s how desperate I was.
But…
‘Normally, if you want to go upstairs, you’d use the escalator that goes up…’
Agent Bronze must have expected I’d use this escalator.
I handed the high schooler another Nostalgia Candy, letting him stand in front.
‘…Three left.’
I’d have to be more cautious with them. But at least for the time being, I needed the maximum efficiency from it.
“Agent, would you mind going up the escalator?”
“…I’ll walk slowly. Be careful.”
“Yes.”
Go Yeongeun led the way onto the escalator. The three of us began walking up on foot.
“Huu…”
Let’s think.
‘Just like I’m deducing his actions, Agent Bronze might’ve been predicting mine…’
And he was probably more rational than I was, given I’d been knocked off balance by everything—witnessing people get ground alive in a blender, a high schooler with a broken ankle to rescue, and so on…
Trying to see it from his perspective.
– A rookie agent, who had some ghost-story experience but is traumatized and timid.
If, on that first day, I moved more cautiously than I actually did, what would I have done?
‘I probably would’ve gotten to the second floor a lot later.’
Instead of rushing there, I might’ve lurked on the first floor, hiding in different spots, too overwhelmed to do much—typical rookie behavior.
‘Agent Bronze would guess it’d take me a long time to make my way upstairs.’
But if he had a different, supposedly ‘safer’ hideout in mind, knowing I’d panic if I arrived on the second floor and found him gone, then…
There’s only one possibility.
‘Let me leave a sign before he even gets to the second floor.’
“……”
I peered at the escalator’s billboard, spotting a red advertisement panel near the bottom. There, as if it were just another piece of the display, the corner of a receipt peeked out.
A Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau leaflet.
“Huh?”
It was easy to miss in a normal supermarket scene, but for anyone in the know, it was like a shining beacon.
While my companions murmured behind me, I carefully peeled it off and opened it.
On the back, thick scribbled writing.
Off-Season Winter Camping Mega Sale
Leftmost wall on the 3rd floor. 12th stall.
“I think I know where he is.”
I recognized it as a sign left by Agent Bronze.
Under candlelight and fog, we moved quickly.
We practically formed a three-person relay, hustling through the store.
“12th stall, right? The 12th!”
“Yes…!”
Realizing there was a chance we might find a friend, even the high schooler pushed on, determined.
We passed through the eerie, repetitive spaces of the massive store until we reached…
[Off-Season Winter Camping Mega Sale]
It finally appeared.
A display area set up like a camping scene, with tents, a campfire, a burner, chairs—
Screeeak.
One side of the tent slid open. A nervous face peeked out, eyes scanning the area.
“Hey! Kim Jaehoon!”
The high schooler who’d stayed with me dashed forward from the circle of candlelight. It made sense.
He’d come in looking for this friend, the one Agent Bronze had taken along.
“O-Ohhhhh!”
“Are you okay?”
“Hiic, waaahhh…”
Both kids clung to each other, crying. I tensed a moment—shouting outside the candle’s protection might attract danger—but nothing happened.
‘Agent Bronze must’ve set something up.’
Thank goodness. With that in mind, Go Yeongeun and I relaxed a little and walked over.
“Shall we put out the candle for a moment?”
“Yes, let’s.”
We followed the veteran agent’s lead to a safe zone.
“Sniff…”
It took a few minutes for the two high schoolers to calm down. The one who’d been with Agent Bronze looked like he’d been through a lot, but he wasn’t badly hurt or exhausted.
‘He must’ve been well looked after.’
That’s the difference between a rookie rescuer and a veteran, I guess. Feeling a little guilty, I watched the two high schoolers.
The one I’d been taking care of, effectively fine now thanks to Nostalgia Candy, forced a smile.
“I’m just glad you made it out okay, too.”
“…Yeah.”
……
Something felt off.
I noticed the boy rescued by Agent Bronze displayed signs of fear and panic. Granted, he’d been wandering this ghost story for days. But even so, his anxiety seemed… more pronounced.
Go Yeongeun leaned in and whispered to me.
“Agent Grapes, that high schooler isn’t who you were looking for, right?”
“…Right.”
“Then… where’s that agent?”
“……”
An unsettling feeling crept up my spine.
‘No way.’
I locked eyes with the high schooler Agent Bronze had been guiding. He flinched, as if scared.
The reason we’d come here, after all…
“Where’s the agent?”
“……”
Sitting in the tent, the boy’s eyes brimmed with tears again.
“That agent… h-he got spotted by employees…! Th, there were dozens of them, all at once…!”
“…!”
“A-And… I think he was caught.”
……
“They… the employees… must’ve dragged him off somewhere, hiic…”
After three days trapped in the Looky Mart ghost story,
Agent Bronze… had already been reduced to mere ‘store supply.’