Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Shopping Mall (5)

[10. All transactions occurring within the Hotel are guaranteed by Ellis Hotel. Before breaking any transaction or agreement, please prepare sufficient compensation.]

Su-myeon flinched hard despite himself and quickly pulled his hand away from the screen.

‘I-I almost pressed the wrong one.’

When he lowered his gaze to the floor, he saw someone’s feet pressed close, just short of touching his heels.

The shoes being worn were old sneakers, exactly like the ones he had left on the lower floor.

“…….”

Upon seeing the familiar shoes pressed so close, Su-myeon’s hands trembled despite himself.

Clenching his hand tightly, he carefully pressed the Lost Item Report.

Ding-dong-

With a cheerful sound, a numbered ticket was printed.

Very fortunately, it was number 1. There were cases where an unlucky number like 666 came out, but….

He decided not to think about that now.

“Excuse me, did you bring a lost item…?”

Su-myeon felt as if he would faint from the voice that kept talking to him.

He could tell the identity of the thing pressed close behind him. The thing warned about in the safety rules.

“That…. I think that’s mine….”

Something claiming that the lost item belonged to it.

It was a mannequin wearing clothes exactly like his.

By what standard, he had no idea, but it looked like the outfit he had worn when he first came here, not what he was wearing now.

“Excusemeexcusemeexcusemeexcusemeexcuseme.”

At the mannequin’s voice calling him like a broken recorder, Su-myeon barely managed to stay silent.

Even more horribly, that voice sounded almost exactly like his own.

But if he did not answer and did not meet its eyes, it could not harm him.

Ding-dong-

With another cheerful sound, number 1 appeared on the monitor in front of the information desk.

“Customer number 1~”

The attendant’s bright voice only heightened the sense of dissonance.

Su-myeon barely walked sideways, slipping away without touching the mannequin.

“You’re listening. You can hear me. You can hear me. Whyareyouignoringmewhyareyouignoringmewhyareyouignoringme.”

The mannequin’s voice kept sounding, but Su-myeon barely ignored it and headed to the information desk.

There, a faceless attendant sat in a neat uniform.

On the face, instead of eyes, nose, or mouth, a red diamond was drawn.

“How may I help you?”

At that moment, the center of the diamond split open long like a mouth, and the attendant spoke.

Su-myeon hurriedly submitted the lost item.

“I picked up a lost item from the floor. I would like you to find its owner.”

At Su-myeon’s words, the attendant accepted the blood-soaked sausage.

Watching red blood stain the snow-white glove, Su-myeon closed his eyes for a long moment and opened them again.

“Oh my! This is an item stolen from our store. My goodness. To think such a conscientious customer picked it up for us.”

The attendant with the bright, cheerful voice spoke with great delight.

The voice and manner of speech were so cheerful they felt unnatural.

“At our Hotel, we offer a special reward to virtuous customers. Could you please place your Heartphone here for a moment?”

Su-myeon hurriedly held out his phone as the attendant requested.

With a jingling sound effect, the voucher number on Su-myeon’s phone, which had 100 won left, shot upward.

[100,000,100 won]

One hundred million for one sausage. At this rate, there was no reason he could not endure a little blood.

“The expiration time for the special voucher is 4,444 hours from the time of issue. Happy shopping!”

At the attendant’s cheerful voice, Su-myeon removed the Heartphone he had been holding against the machine.

But in his hand was a Rose Coin that had not been there until just a moment ago.

“Uh, does this also have a time limit for use?”

At Su-myeon’s question as he held up the Rose Coin, the attendant tilted their head almost ninety degrees.

“That is not something I gave you, though?”

It was a reaction that seemed to show they knew absolutely nothing about the Rose Coin.

Swallowing dryly, Su-myeon spoke to the attendant.

“Ah, I was mistaken. I’m sorry. But… earlier, there was a mannequin claiming ownership of the lost item, and it inconvenienced me while shopping.”

“Oh dear. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We will promptly dispose of the defective mannequin!”

Once the diamond attendant’s head returned upright, the corners of their mouth rose to a grotesque degree.

And contrary to that unpleasant sight, the strange pressure he had felt behind him vanished.

“……Thank you.”

“Yes! Then—”

Before the attendant could say anything more, Su-myeon quickly bowed and hurried out of the Customer Service Center.

To the party waiting for him with tense expressions, he showed the Heartphone screen.

One hundred million. A whole one hundred million.

After confirming the screen, the tension left the party’s faces.

“Let’s go. Shopping.”

“W-wait. Can you really use that? Wait. Is it really one hundred million? Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands….”

When Su-myeon immediately started moving, Ju-hee followed in surprise and checked the Heartphone screen again.

Without hesitation, Su-myeon answered.

“This also has a set expiration period. Let’s hurry up and use it.”

4,444 hours. It was a period that would last more than half a year, but Su-myeon deliberately did not reveal the duration.

Instead, now that he had become rich, Su-myeon tried making a very generous statement.

“Is there anything you want to buy?”

But even if they bought luxury goods or fine clothes here, would that have any meaning…?

As expected, their reactions were vague, unable to answer easily, so Su-myeon told them to follow him and took the lead first.

Having chosen his destination without hesitation, Su-myeon stopped in front of one store.

“This is….”

Han-su stopped as he examined the store.

It was the horrendous-looking shop filled with hair and eyeballs that Ju-hee had been eyeing.

Inside the store, which subtly wriggled and moved as if it were alive, there was a display stand that Ju-hee had failed to find.

It was covered by hair, so it was not visible at once, but the inside could be glimpsed slightly through gaps in the writhing.

Su-myeon pointed inside with his hand.

“For now, I’m going to buy that.”

No one wanted to look closely at what exactly was inside.

Even if they tried to look a little more carefully, it was a store full of rolling eyeballs hidden everywhere.

But at Su-myeon’s words, Ju-hee ultimately could not hold back her curiosity and approached.

“……A gun…?”

Why are they selling guns in a place like this?

When Ju-hee checked inside and murmured, Han-su, who had been looking far away, turned his gaze as well.

Looking carefully through the gap in the display stand, there was a gun they could not fail to recognize.

In this garbage place, Su-myeon showed his party a very useful shopping item.

“K2?”

At Han-su’s words, Park Du-pal, an older man among the party, showed interest and approached the show window.

It was a rifle that most men who had completed military service could not fail to know.

However, the absurd point was literally why it was here right now.

“Oh, the price is 9,999,900 won, so it’s not that expensive either?”

Du-pal had already checked the price tag attached to the display stand.

For someone with one hundred million, it was a very kind price.

But the problem was that the display stand was placed in the very center of the store.

“You’re… saying you’re going to buy that, right…?”

And if you want to buy it, you have to go in there, right…?

At Ha-min’s hesitant voice, Su-myeon briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Getting a gun in a place this dangerous VS stepping on something disgusting for a moment.

Between those two, of course it was the former.

“I’ll go in and come back.”

If I faint in there, please drag me out. Please.

He wanted to leave even those words behind, but timid Su-myeon gritted his teeth.

Now that one hundred million had entered his voucher, if he wanted to use the money, he had no choice but to go in, pay, and come out himself.

Under the rules, the Heartphone absolutely had to be carried by its owner.

“Ugh….”

Su-myeon let out a sound of disgust in advance, braced himself, and slowly stepped into the store.

He wanted to run in and pay right away, but Su-myeon stepped carefully.

When he had entered in the game by simply moving his fingers, this shop had not been such a difficult place.

Now, his position was different. If possible, he did not want to step on the eyeballs hidden between the strands of hair….

“…!”

He stepped on one. He stepped on it. He was pretty sure he stepped on it?!

As soon as something squishy came underfoot, he hurriedly stepped somewhere else, only for something beneath that to burst with a pop instead.

Goosebumps rose all over his body. He felt like he was going to vomit.

But after barely reaching the display stand, Su-myeon opened the glass cover and picked up the familiar rifle.

“…….”

Chewing through an endless stream of curses inside, Su-myeon barely finished the payment.

Carefully? He was not even thinking about that anymore.

Whether he stepped on something or not, before he could feel any texture, Su-myeon hurriedly ran out of the store.

“Y-you did well….”

Ju-hee barely patted Su-myeon on the back.

Receiving one hundred million was enviable, certainly, but if it had to be spent like that, it became a little less enviable.

When Su-myeon, who had gone white as a sheet, calmed down a little by rubbing his shoes against the floor, Han-su asked.

“Are there bullets inside?”

Su-myeon already knew, but for the party’s sake, he took out the magazine and showed them.

Fortunately, it was packed full with thirty rounds.

After checking, Han-su nodded.

“From now on, Mr. Su-myeon, please take the rearmost position.”

At Han-su’s words, Park Du-pal, who had been watching from behind, abruptly asked.

“You said you were Mr. Su-myeon, right? Did you do much shooting?”

“I just did enough not to stand out.”

Su-myeon answered sheepishly. In the military, even last place stood out, so Su-myeon had done only about average.

At least, thanks to serving in a unit that could be called the “modern military,” average Su-myeon had been able to get by without standing out.

Of course, that was only relatively speaking. Even for Su-myeon, the military had still been the worst place.

“What unit were you in? That detective over there was active duty too, right?”

In my day, it wasn’t K2s but M16s, you know~ That was how Park Du-pal’s army stories began.

That old man, really. He was an old man with no sense.

Park Du-pal, whose hair was slightly thinning, looked to be in his fifties, but unfortunately, rather than being seasoned by age, he was the type to be a little lacking in tact.

If anything, he felt like the very epitome of an ordinary middle-aged man one could see anywhere.

“But against… a monster like that. Would bullets work?”

Ju-hee, who had seen the Mad Hatter directly, broke the conversation as it veered into idle chatter and asked.

She now seemed to have completely understood that the enemies they would meet here were not human.

“Wouldn’t they at least create an opening to run?”

Of course, if Su-myeon picked his vital points well and shot, he could kill the Mad Hatter too.

He did not know whether it would be a permanent death, but at least until he left, he would not have to see him again.

But Su-myeon pretended to be uncertain, giving a moderate answer, and pointed out the most important point.

“More than that, it should at least be effective against Ki San-hyeok.”

“Ki San-hyeok?”

At Su-myeon’s words, Ju-hee expressed doubt.

Ah, right. That bastard. He had not even exchanged names with them.

Just when Su-myeon thought, Oh no, Ju-hee understood roughly from context who San-hyeok was.

“Ki San-hyeok, the grandson of Kihoe Group? The guy who recently had that abuse-of-power controversy….”

Ju-hee, who had been thinking something over, spoke as if she had remembered.

“That’s right, it is him. I didn’t recognize him because he bleached his hair, but I think he’s the Ki San-hyeok I saw in the photos.”

So that’s why that bastard was screaming earlier about whether we knew who he was.

Ju-hee muttered with revulsion.

Thanks to her recognizing him, the point that Su-myeon had never had a chance to exchange names with him passed without suspicion.

“For now, I was thinking of using the voucher I received to buy each of you something necessary. What do you think?”

Preferably something that would help with safety.

At Su-myeon’s addition, everyone nodded very obediently.