Chapter 6

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 his build was not small at all.

Even Han-su could not pull him up easily, and his brow furrowed sharply.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

“Stay still!”

“U-uaaaagh! Monster! Monster!”

Before anyone knew it, beyond the single path, a clown Security with one huge, glaring eye had begun to come into view.

Han-su forgot his polite speech and shouted, but calming the already terrified high school student was impossible.

Because the high school student was grabbing and pulling wildly, Han-su’s forearm was badly scratched, beads of blood even forming on it.

Seeing that, Su-myeon was also a little flustered.

‘What happens if the protagonist dies…?’

If this was merely a game that had become reality, then even Han-su, who had once been the protagonist, was nothing more than one character.

They could leave him dead and clear the next stage.

‘But if I’ve entered the game world…?’

The moment the protagonist died, everything would return to the beginning.

It would restart normally from the start.

But in that process, what would happen to Su-myeon, who had not originally been a person inside the game?

If he was lucky, he would return to reality, but what if.

‘Wouldn’t I just vanish, as if I’d never existed…?’

Su-myeon had always thought that what he wanted, without any greed, was simply to sleep with his legs stretched out.

But when he thought that the erasure of his very existence might be coming for him, a survival instinct strong enough to surprise even himself suddenly surged up.

“Hold on tight!”

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

At the starting point of the beam, Han-su was lying flat, holding on to the high school student.

The clown Security’s face, charging toward him with heavy footsteps, drew closer and closer.

Inside the mouth that had split all the way to its bulging cheekbones, teeth ground ceaselessly like a crusher.

The half-protruding eye looked as if it might fall out at any moment, already taking up half of its face, yet the pupil inside that eye was far too small.

Moreover, as he had guessed, it was holding something presumed to be Cheol-su’s arm.

“…….”

Even so, compared to a real piece of a body, looking at a grotesque monster’s face felt like looking at a fake prop, which was several times better.

Instead of the severed arm, Su-myeon stared fixedly at the clown Security’s face.

Then, after clenching his teeth once and releasing them, Su-myeon bent down, reached out toward the high school student, and shouted.

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

The rude guests who had trespassed into the employees’ space.

The clown Security, which had been splitting its giant mouth even wider to eject them, stopped dead.

Right in front of them—no, on Han-su’s back—the clown Security slowly began to close the mouth that had been stretched wide open.

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

Su-myeon was stretching out one hand to cover the screaming high school student’s mouth so that the clown Security, which he had barely managed to soothe, would not be provoked.

Overwhelmed by fear, the boy bit hard into Su-myeon’s hand.

Su-myeon froze for a moment at that inconsiderate action, but hurriedly continued with words that might flatter the clown Security.

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

Why is this crazy bastard biting someone’s hand so hard!

Holding back the urge to shout that at the high school student, Su-myeon shouted toward the clown Security and stretched out his other hand, pointing to the farthest and highest spot.

The clown Security, which had been threatening them with its terrifying appearance until just moments ago, began to twist its neck with a creeeak.

Then it suddenly reached a hand toward Su-myeon.

“…Are you giving this to me?”

What it offered was a Rose Coin with a somehow familiar shape.

When Su-myeon answered, the clown Security’s neck suddenly snapped with a boing that sounded like something from a children’s toy.

Then, in an instant, its outward appearance changed.

It was still a clown Security, but now it had simply become cute, with black bean-like eyes, a tiny mouth, and colorful makeup, like a toy doll.

Like the illustration of a joker card mixed into a deck of playing cards.

The high school student, who had finally been pulled halfway up and was gripping the single beam with his own arm, seemed to calm down a little after seeing the clown Security’s changed face.

“……Thank you….”

After finally succeeding in pulling the high school student up, Su-myeon barely managed to offer thanks and accepted the coin as politely as possible.

Then, as if delighted, the clown Security bounced away with boinging sounds and headed toward the spot Su-myeon had mentioned.

No matter how cute its appearance had become, the torn-off hand it was holding and the trail of blood that streamed behind it sent chills down his spine.

“H-huh, huuuuh, thank… thank you….”

“Stop crying and hurry up the stairs!”

Su-myeon stopped the high school student, who was about to burst into tears the moment he crossed the beam, and shoved the boy’s back hard.

The others seemed to have already headed for the stairs and were nowhere to be seen. The only one waiting was Go Ju-hee, who grabbed the high school student’s hand and quickly ran toward the stairs.

Su-myeon hesitated for a moment, then took off one of the shoes he was wearing.

“…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 not seen them yet.

“I asked him to show it to me, and now I’m disappearing. If I just leave, I feel bad, so I should at least pretend I fell down.”

Han-su’s expression looked as if he had a great deal to say in many ways, but Su-myeon dropped one shoe downward.

After finishing even that bit of fabrication, the two of them also ran toward the stairs.

[ Arcade ]

Once again, when they climbed the stairs, words announcing the location were written openly on a sign.

Now, they were on the seventh basement floor.

“Come on, stop… stop it. Stop!”

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

The place that appeared along with the sobbing high school student’s cries was a vast space that stretched out like a shopping mall after closing time.

Su-myeon checked the newly appeared safety rules on his phone and slipped the coin into his inventory.

The high school student still had not stopped crying.

“Uwaaaah….”

Go Ju-hee, who had failed after a long attempt to soothe him, also shrugged with an awkward expression.

[PM 12:37]

…Moreover, before they knew it, the scheduled hour had passed.

Would the remaining people ultimately be unable to get out? Or had they escaped through some other passage on their side?

There was no way to know, so thinking about it for too long would only damage his mental health.

Su-myeon shook his head and plopped down in front of the high school student, who was still sitting there bawling.

He still looked young, but seeing a mountain of a boy sniffling was admittedly a little funny.

“…….”

Without a word, Su-myeon lifted the hand in front of the boy that still clearly showed the bite marks.

When the high school student saw it, he began to sob even harder.

Since he was as big as 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.

Even if someone asked why he was shaking down a kid, he would have nothing to say, but Su-myeon had a reason to save today’s voucher.

Only one of the shoes he had originally been wearing remained now.

Even though it was an old sneaker, and the sole was already completely worn down. If he wanted to run away properly, he needed to buy new shoes first.

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

“Something sweet.”

Once he knew how to repay the favor, the high school student finally came to his senses somewhat.

The fact that, while sniffling and wiping his tears, he asked what kind of coffee to buy meant he was not exactly ordinary either.

As befitted his setting as a former baseball club member, he was large and strong, but he was the youngest character, a first-year high school student. Lim Ha-min.

Su-myeon already knew his name, but he could not unnaturally act as though he knew him.

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“Ah… I, I’m Lim Ha-min!”

Ha-min shouted his name, then hesitated and asked back.

“What about you, hyung…?”

“Han Su-myeon.”

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

Later, those two were destined to become close like brothers, so Su-myeon watched them with warm satisfaction.

Because Han-su had saved Ha-min when he had been in danger, it seemed the two had become closer earlier than expected.

‘The ones who’ll end up on bad terms and the ones who’ll end up on good terms are all moving way ahead of schedule.’

He could not quite judge whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The other people, too, seemed to have checked the newly appeared safety rule and confirmed the voucher balance displayed in their mobile Inventories.

As if they still had not adapted to supernatural phenomena, it seemed they could not even imagine using the Inventory through their phones like a bag.

‘…For now, should I just not tell them?’

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

Everyone received 100,000 won per day, and any remaining balance did not carry over to the next day.

Since it was simple, everyone seemed to be stocking up mainly on food and drinks.

“Having to pay it back in another way… doesn’t sound like it’ll be a normal method, does it…?”

At Go Ju-hee’s voice, which, as expected, came after checking the safety rule, Su-myeon nodded.

“Wouldn’t they rip off an arm or something, like that guy earlier?”

Feeling fatigue wash over him even though it was only lunchtime, Su-myeon rubbed his eyes.

Hearing footsteps approaching him without missing the chance provided by his brief rest, Su-myeon wanted to burst into tears like Ha-min earlier.

Could you please leave me alone?

Even while thinking that, timid Su-myeon could not bring himself to say it and lifted his head toward the person approaching.

“If not for you, Mr. Su-myeon, we could not have saved him. We were able to save that student entirely thanks to you.”

At the sight of Han-su expressing his thanks in a blunt tone, Su-myeon nodded.

“Yeees….”

I feel like I’ve received all the attention I’ll ever get in my life in the span of the last hour or two, so I’m a little exhausted.

Too tired even to respond properly, Su-myeon accepted his thanks in moderation, and 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.”

It was not wrong, but it was not something Su-myeon wanted to emphasize and receive even more attention for.

Still, if he had to find a good point, it was probably that since something like this had happened, maybe they would save him once later when he was in danger too…?

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

“It’s fine. Everyone made it up safely, so let’s call it that.”

Su-myeon even waved his hand as if to brush it off, and since things had come to this, he also wanted to resolve his own question.

Had he simply entered the game?

Or had the game become reality?

Ever since he had become conscious of it on the single beam earlier, it had kept bothering him.

At first, he had thought that, either way, he had to get out of this crazy hotel, so he could check once he reached the ground floor.

But… depending on which of the two it was, the ending his existence would arrive at would definitely change.

‘If this game simply became reality… then once I leave this hotel, I should be able to go home, back to my daily life.’

But if he had entered the game….

His head began to hurt from thinking any deeper, and after a silence, Su-myeon opened his mouth.

“Um, I want to ask something… a very random question….”

Go Ju-hee and Han-su focused on Su-myeon’s words, seeing the serious expression on his face.