Chapter 22

Chapter 22. Shopping! Warehouse Club! (2)

At a warehouse club, goods are sold very cheaply, but in bulk.

So as someone who lived alone, I almost never had any reason to use one.

In fact, I had only been to one exactly once.

A few years ago, during a company workshop.

We usually bought the things we needed online, but at the time, the manager who sat in front of me suggested that we go shop in person at a warehouse club.

He said he had just gotten a membership.

That was the first and last time I had gone along and looked around……

-Do you remember the response manual for this Special Zone?

Cha Si-eon’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I forced myself to answer calmly.

“I remember.”

What I mainly did at the Bureau was read rulebooks.

So I remembered clearly.

The rules for this place.

And just how meaningless they were.

---

Rules of Conduct for Missing Persons within 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」

You are currently inside 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」, which is under observation by the Government of the Republic of Korea.

This is an emergency situation in which you may not only lose your life but also suffer extreme pain. Please familiarize yourself with the following rules of conduct and respond with caution.

■ Common Precautions

Common Precautions are not recommended within 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」.

■ 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」 Directives of Conduct

「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」 is a Special Zone in the form of a warehouse club with invisible traps installed throughout.

The traps in this location are invisible before activation, making prediction and disarming impossible.

Activated traps have realistic and fatal effects on their targets, appearing in the form of stab wounds, gunshot wounds, burns, crushing, severing, explosions, and other forms of harm.

Additionally, every being wandering this Special Zone is hostile to humans.

These dangerous entities will attack you immediately upon discovering you, and their physical abilities greatly surpass those of a healthy adult male.

Therefore, fighting dangerous entities is not recommended.

For the reasons above, attempting to escape from this location is equivalent to crossing an active battlefield with your bare body.

Citizens are advised to carefully assess their own capabilities before attempting escape or choosing repose.

---

The most hopeless Special Zone among Type 1s.

That was my impression after reading the rulebook for 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」.

Besides, Kwak Jae-gyeom had said it beside me too.

-It’s Three Steps, One Death.

-Three Steps, One Death?

-The warehouse club you’re looking at right now, hyung. They call it “Three Steps, One Death ” because one person dies every three steps.

Kwak Jae-gyeom’s face, smiling carelessly, shimmered before my eyes.

The place I had been dragged into was that atrocious.

Atrocious enough to earn the self-mocking nickname “Three Steps, One Death.”

Atrocious enough that even the Bureau subtly backed away by calling them “Rules of Conduct” instead of “Survival Rules.”

-As you already know, this Special Zone contains invisible traps. Additionally, every entity with behavioral activity in this location is a dangerous entity.

Cha Si-eon explained heavily.

At the Bureau, the nonhuman entities wandering Special Zones are divided into “dangerous entities” and “neutral entities.”

Dangerous entities are things like 「Moving Gun」, which attack humans indiscriminately.

Neutral entities are things like 「Railway Police」 or 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」, which at least do not attack without reason.

But in 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」, there were only dangerous entities.

And that fact connected unpleasantly to Cha Si-eon’s next explanation as well.

-The exploration rate for this Special Zone is only 17%. We have identified only the spatial structure, trap types, and kinds of dangerous entities. No strategy or escape route has been confirmed yet.

In short, escape was impossible.

It was an obvious result.

To escape from 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」, a Ticket had been absolutely necessary.

And a Ticket could only be obtained through interaction with a neutral entity.

If I thought along the same pattern, then there was no way to find an escape method in this place, where there were only dangerous entities.

Faced with this dead-end situation, I muttered gravely.

“So am I going to die here?”

-The rescue team has already departed.

Long live the Bureau!

-Escape is impossible, but destruction is possible. Once the Special Zone is destroyed, those staying inside will naturally be released.

Long live physical force!

-However, there is a problem that must be resolved before that.

Just as I raised both arms in delight, Cha Si-eon threw cold water on me.

-During the rescue team’s breakthrough into 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」, there is a risk that Mr. Seo Do-un may be caught in an explosion or collapse. Therefore, before the rescue team arrives, you must move to a safe location.

“Where should I go?”

-The underground parking lot.

I received a mission.

Move to the underground parking lot while avoiding traps and dangerous entities.

Reward: survival.

-This Special Zone spans from the second floor above ground to the third basement level, with each floor covering roughly one and a half soccer fields. Mr. Seo Do-un’s current location is the first-floor sales area, and the destination is the B2 parking lot. You will use the moving walkway to descend between floors.

Ride the moving walkway down two floors.

In a Special Zone called Three Steps, One Death, even that was not going to be easy.

Fortunately, the Bureau did not overestimate me that much either.

-You will move to the destination according to my instructions. Even a minor mistake can be fatal, so please concentrate.

In other words, a team-leader-level agent would personally command me.

Because if he told me to find my own way, it was obvious I would die in three steps.

-We will depart once Mr. Seo Do-un’s heart rate recovers. Before that, equip your protective gear and earpiece.

Heart rate?

Ah, right. This smartwatch belonged to the Bureau.

But nobody said they were going to spy on my biometric data with this thing……?

I was dumbfounded, but for now, I moved as instructed.

The special vest the Bureau had told me to wear had all sorts of things stored inside it.

I took out goggles and a mask from it, put them on, and tightened my belt.

Since I could not keep holding the smartwatch to my ear, I put on the earpiece as well.

Then, just as I was putting thick stab-proof gloves on both hands—

BOOM—!

A tremendous roar rang out from somewhere.

As I sharpened my nerves, Cha Si-eon explained.

-A citizen who had just been pulled into the Special Zone has died.

“There are other people here?”

-At present, only Mr. Seo Do-un is inside. Before that explosion occurred, only Mr. Seo Do-un was inside as well.

A chill ran through me at Cha Si-eon’s words.

I was alone here.

I had been alone even before that explosion.

Then who was the person who had just been caught in the explosion and died?

Someone who had been dragged in right before it happened.

Quite literally, in an instant.

Perhaps before they had even taken three steps.

I unconsciously touched the bandage wrapped around my head.

Come to think of it, I was in no position to talk about someone else.

I had been hit in the head as soon as I arrived here too.

I was only alive because it had missed the mark by luck.

-Are you ready?

“……Yes. I’m ready.”

Luck or whatever else, right now I should focus only on surviving.

-Then climb to the top of the storage rack. We will move along the top of the racks to avoid the traps in this section.

But even the start was not easy.

The warehouse club’s storage racks were made of skeletal steel frames.

They had a three-tier structure, and their total height looked to be about five meters.

They were not exactly shaped for someone to climb by stepping on things.

But what could I do? If I could not do it, I would die.

I stepped on the rack frame and the goods stacked inside it, forcing myself to crawl up.

CRUNCH—!

When I climbed on, the boxes piled on top of the rack crumpled and shook.

Aaaah, this was not going to cave in, was it?

Swallowing my unease, I lay flat.

My head touched the ceiling, so I could not stand.

As I crawled along precariously, I soon reached the opposite end of the storage rack.

-Cut off a piece of bloodied clothing and drop it.

I used my knife to cut off a piece of the T-shirt I was wearing underneath.

Then I tossed the blood-caked piece of cloth onto the floor.

BANG—!

The moment the fluttering cloth touched the floor, it scattered apart into warp and weft.

“……Am I sure I came the right way?”

-There is wire. We will move to the opposite storage rack without contacting the floor.

“…….”

My struggles after that were pathetic.

I awkwardly shot the wire.

I clung to the line and crossed to the other side while trembling.

After barely arriving, I forced myself to crawl up again.

Then I crawled along and shot the wire again.

After repeating that four times, it felt like my forearms were going to tear off.

“Urgh……!”

I strained with all my might and crawled onto the fourth storage rack.

Then my field of vision suddenly opened up.

Fortunately, this was the last rack.

Ahead was a section where various items were displayed at about human height.

And beyond that was the moving walkway descending underground.

Finally.

But it was too early to rejoice.

-There is a dangerous entity.

“Yes, I see it.”

Something was moving frantically among the displayed goods.

It wore something like clothing and walked on two feet, but it was not human.

A large barcode scanner replacing its head.

And a body that seemed to imitate a human only roughly.

It was a 「Shelf-Stocking Employee」.

-As you already know, 「Employee」-type dangerous entities with barcode-scanner heads attack humans unconditionally upon discovery.

At Cha Si-eon’s warning, I nodded silently.

Of course I knew.

That 「Employee」 was also one of the atrocious pillars leading Three Steps, One Death.

-The 「Shelf-Stocking Employee」 roams its assigned area and organizes disordered products. This dangerous entity perceives its surroundings only through visual information.

Along with Cha Si-eon’s explanation, the smartwatch blinked.

A floor plan of the shelving area appeared on the screen.

Then a red line moved, leaving a trail like a maze puzzle.

-This is the 「Shelf-Stocking Employee」’s movement route. You must pass through the shelving area without being seen by the Employee.

The Employee’s movement route was irregular, like a nervous scribble.

On top of that, it was far too fast.

-I will make the judgments, so simply move as instructed. Move as quickly as possible. Directions will be forward, back, left, and right.

At Cha Si-eon’s demand, I exhaled the breath I had been holding.

Hoo—

First, while the Employee had its back turned, I climbed down from the storage rack and pressed myself against the nearest shelf.

A moment later, Cha Si-eon pronounced firmly.

-Forward.

I kicked off the floor and ran.

-Forward, left, right.

I carried out the following instructions exactly as well.

When I moved without hesitation, the instructions became even faster.

-Forward, right, forward, stop. Back, forward, forward.

I kept moving like a game character controlled with directional keys.

But I could hardly make any real progress.

Because of the Employee’s dizzying movements and speed, I also had to keep going back and forth around roughly the same area.

-Back, left, forward, forward, right, right, maintain speed!

Cha Si-eon shouted.

I was gradually getting out of breath.

If only it had been a straight run.

But because I had to keep turning, stopping, and running again, my stamina was being shaved away fast.

-Back!

Cha Si-eon demanded a retreat, and I kicked off the floor again.

But I could instinctively tell.

I was one beat too late.

The straight aisle I needed to retreat through still had several steps left.

And the Employee’s shadow fell across the aisle where I stood.

Just when I thought I was about to run straight into it, Cha Si-eon shouted.

-Push the display stand!

I rammed the display shelf with all my strength.

Then the large TV displayed on top of the shelf tilted and fell noisily to the opposite side from me.

CRUNCH—!

The sound of expensive electronics shattering.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP—!

And a sudden, urgent mechanical alarm.

The next moment, the shadow approaching me disappeared.

-Forward!

At Cha Si-eon’s shout, I ran with every last bit of strength I had.

-Take off the bandage and throw it!

I blindly tore off the bandage wrapped around my head and flung it away.

The moment the bloodstained bandage floated above my head—

FWOOSH—!

What? What the hell?!

The bandage I had thrown burst straight into flames.

Horrified by the scattering ashes, I kept running anyway.

As I vaulted over the railing ahead, the moving walkway heading to the lower floor welcomed me.