Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Shopping Mall (3)

[8. None of the mannequins placed in our hotel have eyes. Therefore, if you discover a mannequin that resembles you, never make eye contact with it.]

Most of the shopping mall was occupied by various stores in normal condition, but in between them, absurd sights were shamelessly mixed in.

“Ugh….”

Like the clown Security they had seen earlier, who had been obsessed with hands and radios, there were bizarre stores that collected one thing each.

The worst of them was a store that had filled every wall, including the floor and ceiling, with all kinds of hair.

“Hup….”

Go Ju-hee, who had been curious whether it was real hair or animal hide and tried to look a little closer, recoiled in horror.

“There are eyeballs hidden inside the hair…!”

Muttering that its taste was seriously the worst, Go Ju-hee rubbed both arms furiously as if she had goosebumps.

If possible, Su-myeon wanted to move on without seeing such sights any further, but in front of Go Ju-hee, he had to pretend this shopping center was his first time here too.

In order to at least pretend to search for a store, he had no choice but to look into each one.

A store that had collected organs of unknown origin, a store completely filled with blood, and so on.

Only after passing one sinister-looking store after another did the two of them finally find a normal shoe store.

“They aren’t shoes made from human skin or something… are they…?”

At Go Ju-hee’s ominous words, Su-myeon stared at her, and Go Ju-hee shrugged too.

“I just said it in case. Even if they are… I’d have no choice but to wear them….”

No, if they’re those kinds of shoes, I’d rather go barefoot….

Keeping that thought to himself, Su-myeon headed toward the men’s shoes.

While glancing at Go Ju-hee, who had moved away toward the display case where the women’s shoes were placed, Su-myeon opened again.

‘I think this shop can only be accessed from my phone.’

When they had exchanged codes earlier, Su-myeon had also taken a quick look at the app lists on the others’ phones.

Everyone had screens exactly like the ones he had seen in the game, and Secret Shop was an app that existed only on his phone.

Drawing more attention to himself with this would be the worst possible case, so Su-myeon wanted to hide his own specialness if possible.

Su-myeon immediately pressed the purchase button for the product he had chosen.

[Nemean Lion Hide (3 Coins)]

[A lion hide reborn as a stylish sukajan jacket! A jacket that cannot be damaged by anything.]

When he saw it earlier, he had made up his mind on this.

No matter how much it was an item, in a place like this, where blood and flesh flew everywhere, a leather jacket was far better than an item about a heart or whatever.

Tap, tap.

At the sudden sound from above his head, Su-myeon looked up in surprise.

A black hole about the size of a soccer ball had suddenly appeared, and something black poked its head out from inside.

“…Huh?”

A cat…? No.

To be precise, it was a black cat doll.

“……Huh?”

The doll even repeated Su-myeon’s exclamation.

When he sprang up in surprise, the black cat doll slowly dropped down as if ignoring gravity and opened its mouth.

“………Ah.”

Ah?

It had opened its mouth for a long while and still had not spoken, so what was wrong with it? Why was it so frustrating?

A strange creature with a cute appearance that he had never seen before… Before that, he was not even sure whether this thing was a living creature.

At any rate, since it was something he had never seen before, Su-myeon could not tell whether he should be wary or not.

Unable to decide his attitude, Su-myeon stared at the green button eyes in silence and took a hesitant half-step back. Only then did the doll open its mouth again.

“It’s product deliveeery~”

The cat, speaking in a drawn-out voice, suddenly grabbed the zipper on its belly and zipped it open.

Unfortunately, the doll’s inner lining was bright red, so it felt very unpleasantly like it was taking out its own entrails, but something came pouring out of that tiny doll.

It was an object whose physical volume should never have fit inside it.

“Hup.”

The item it pulled out with a grunt was a black sukajan jacket embroidered with a splendid golden lion.

Its style was somewhat outdated, but because the golden embroidery was so large and vivid, it did look fairly decent.

Meanwhile, the inner lining inside the black cat doll’s stomach had half spilled out.

“Heeere~ the thing you bought~”

“Ah, thank you….”

Seriously, what does this crazy game want to do, and how far? I wish it would pick one, creepy or cute….

Su-myeon looked over the item he had received from various angles, then put on the perfectly sized sukajan jacket.

Compared to wearing nothing but a single white short-sleeved T-shirt, it definitely gave him a feeling of safety.

Even after he had spent a while examining the item with satisfaction, the cat doll did not leave and kept watching him, so Su-myeon glanced at it too.

The black cat doll’s green eyes stared at him as if wanting something.

Since they were just buttons, he could not feel anything like a gaze from them, but somehow he knew it was staring fixedly at him.

In the end, unable to bring himself to tell it to go back, Su-myeon carefully opened his mouth again.

“Um, are you… Belle? …Do you come in person every time…?”

Its voice sounds more like a handsome man than a beautiful woman….

At Su-myeon’s words, the cat doll made a weak “Aaaah~” sound, then answered slowly.

“Nooo~? I’m just helping with deliveeeries~….”

The doll had been speaking slowly but earnestly, then paused for a moment and tilted its head.

“Ah, it’s been sooo long since I said my name~ ……I forgot it, see~?”

What? I’m going to forget the first part while waiting for the rest.

Only when Su-myeon was just about to die of frustration did the cat finally remember its name and continue speaking.

“I’m Cheshire. The Cheshire Cat~”

The corners of the doll’s mouth rose wide into a grin. It was a fairly cute shape, but….

Su-myeon ultimately could not hold back.

He reached out, pushed the doll’s red lining back inside, and zipped up the open zipper.

“Wooow~ I forgot about thaaat~! Thank yooou~ You’re kind, aren’t yooou~?”

Then it tilted its head the other way for a moment.

“You know~? Be careful~”

All of a sudden?

Of course, this place was full of things to be careful about, but this flow of conversation was a little hard to follow.

“The Mad Hatter really loves new things, you see~”

Su-myeon did not need to ask what that meant because he already knew about the Mad Hatter.

He was the general manager of this shopping mall.

If there was someone who exceeded the amount limit, he was the monster who cut off body parts worth that amount and made them into his own products.

He was especially sensitive to theft, and if a theft occurred, he became greatly enraged.

So enraged that he would find the thief, cut them to pieces, and process every bit of them into his own products.

“It’d be a shame~ if you became one of his products~”

To the point that the rule recommended stabbing oneself in the heart, the Mad Hatter’s “processing” was horrific.

But as long as no one stole anything, he did not appear.

Su-myeon was just about to ask why Cheshire had suddenly brought him up and whether he knew anything about how to defeat him when all the lights suddenly turned red.

“Ack! What is this?!”

He heard Go Ju-hee shout from far across the store, where she had been choosing shoes.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

As the sharp warning sound continued, Su-myeon grasped the situation.

Some damn bastard had, again! Again! Broken a rule and been caught again!

Originally, the person who caused an incident on this stage was San-hyeok.

Since he had not made it over from the previous floor, Su-myeon had thought it would be fine.

“Mr. Su-myeon!”

He heard Go Ju-hee, startled, running toward him.

Would it have been better to drag everyone along and watch them buy things one by one?

Su-myeon hurriedly grabbed the first pair of sneakers he saw, with a price tag of 99,900 won attached.

“Should I help you a little~?”

Only the smile of the Cheshire Cat, who had been watching him, floated leisurely beneath the flashing red lights.

Along with the alarm, Go Ju-hee’s horrified voice rang out.

“The shutter is closing!”

The shutter of the shoe store was about to close.

Hearing Go Ju-hee’s shout, Su-myeon moved without even having time to answer Cheshire.

The thought of being trapped made people move before they could judge.

The idea that one must not be isolated was something close to instinct.

Su-myeon grabbed Go Ju-hee, who was about to rush out.

“Why….”

Before her question asking why he had grabbed her could finish, Su-myeon threw Go Ju-hee’s high heel, which had been rolling on the floor.

As the flying high heel passed through the spot where the shutter was coming down—

BANG!

Go Ju-hee, who was being held, flinched at the loud sound.

The fallen shutter was as sharp as a guillotine, and the high heel had been sliced cleanly in half.

“Th-that could have been us just now, right?”

That would have been you. Why are you including me?

Looking at the severed high heel, Go Ju-hee turned pale, and as if her strength left her, she sank down where she stood.

All around them, only red light flickered intermittently along with the alarm.

The scenery was one from which even the small bit of familiarity remaining in the alien shopping mall had completely vanished.

“Shh.”

When Su-myeon spoke briefly as a warning, Go Ju-hee quickly covered her mouth.

If he said not to do something, it was simply better for her safety not to do it.

Through repeated experience, Go Ju-hee had learned that fact completely in her body.

THUD! THUD!

Giant footsteps wandered through the shopping center.

Since they could hear other strange sounds besides that, Su-myeon and Go Ju-hee frowned and focused on listening.

With the beeping alarm added on, it was even harder to make out.

“Hahahaha!”

…Laughter?

The two of them heard the sound at the same time and looked at each other.

It was not that they had heard it after concentrating for a long time. Rather, they could hear the laughter because it was getting closer and closer.

“Mr. Su-myeon, this voice….”

Go Ju-hee whispered carefully.

“Isn’t it that bastard’s voice?”

That bastard? At her words, Su-myeon listened closely again.

Now that she said it, it was definitely a voice that sounded somehow familiar. Ki San-hyeok.

However, he could not be sure whether it was really him.

“…….”

Su-myeon carefully looked out at the dark shopping center through the gap beneath the closed shutter.

Unable to suppress her curiosity, Go Ju-hee also stuck her head out with him.

If it was San-hyeok, how on earth had he survived the floor below?

“For now, hiding is probably the safest thing.”

The Mad Hatter was searching for the thief, and only the thief.

Of course, in his anger, he might grab anything he saw and put on a disassembly show, but the important point was that he had a target.

“The person who set off the alarm is the target. So as long as we, who have nothing to do with the alarm, hide here properly, we should be safe….”

Su-myeon, who had been about to say they were definitely safe, corrected himself.

“I think.”

It was regrettable that the shopping center they could have walked around comfortably had turned into a hide-and-seek location, but in the end, there were clues for surviving somehow between the rules.

Go Ju-hee, also recalling the rule once more, nodded in agreement.

At that moment, Go Ju-hee suddenly discovered something, ducked down, and pulled Su-myeon behind a shelf.

Wondering how she was so strong, Su-myeon was dragged along before he knew it.

“Hey! Don’t spill anything, and take good care of it!”

The two held their breath at the voice that had drawn closer.

Ki San-hyeok, cackling, and several others were passing in front of the shoe store where the two of them were hiding.

Among them, the noisiest was Ki San-hyeok by far, but the one who drew the eye was someone else.

Go Ju-hee clenched her teeth and muttered.

“That bastard again….”

A person whose back Ki San-hyeok was shoving roughly.

He was a young man with a gentle-looking impression, but he was almost sobbing as he dragged his limping foot along and struggled after them.

Moreover, wherever he had stolen it from, he was filling a giant bag with items.