“……”
“It wasn’t me, exactly—it was another agent—but I guess they treated us as equally responsible.”
I fell silent, then asked,
“Where is that senior agent now?”
“He’s dead.”
“……”
“Or at least, I’m assuming he is… He went up that staircase.”
Go Yeongeun pointed up the stairs.
“His family had disappeared here, apparently. Their last trace ended on the fourth floor… so he came here specifically intending to go up there.”
“……”“I mean, is he crazy? If he wants to die, go alone. Why drag me along just when I—ah.”
“……”
“Anyway, I stayed here while covering my ears. But the moment he opened the door to the fourth floor… I still heard it.”
The jingle.
And not long after… she ended up acting like an ‘employee’.
“……”
“Um, pardon me.”
“Call me Grapes.”
“Right. Agent Grapes.”
Go Yeongeun rubbed her face, then looked up. Her expression was more composed.
“There’s no hope for me anyway, so if you two plan on leaving, I’ll at least serve as a decoy. I got trapped and contaminated here, almost starved… that’s the least I could—”
“No.”
After a moment’s hesitation, I stepped back and pulled the high schooler forward.
“Huh? Agent…?”
“Actually, we could really use your help. …He has an injured ankle.”
“Ah.”
We barely managed to persuade the nervous high schooler to take the candy out of his mouth for a moment. Then I handed over the emergency first-aid kit I’d brought, and Go Yeongeun treated his ankle with skill twenty times more professional than mine.
“But if he goes back to eating that candy afterward, won’t this be kind of pointless? The candy…”
“Just keep the splint on for a few hours anyway.”
With his stamina and composure drained, the high schooler returned to a state of near-panic, so he needed some coaxing.
I took out my bargaining chip.
“Let’s eat this first.”
“…!! F-Food…!”
The high schooler’s eyes went wide as saucers.
The instant meals I whipped out vanished in seconds, shared among the three of us.
‘We can finally eat these now that we’re technically outside the supermarket.’
Back in the food court, we could only eat ‘safe’ foods, so I’d never dared bring these out. Even then, I only chose items without a strong smell, just in case.
Honestly, I’ve never eaten this fast in my life.
I polished off a carton of UHT milk in about two seconds, then wolfed down a castella cake in under thirty.
‘I feel alive again.’
After that, we put the high schooler to sleep. I wanted to collapse and rest as well, but first I needed to talk to my equally exhausted colleague.
We exchanged the information we each had, and made small talk to recover our mental strength.
“Mr. Ro… I mean, Agent Grapes, you always come so prepared. Meanwhile, I wasted space lugging around a store layout map.”
She said, sounding bitter, explaining that the third floor was so enormous that her map was hardly useful. It was basically a scattered mess of vague details.
“I even brought some coins from a different Darkness, just in case. But it looks like they don’t count here as valid currency…”
Wait a minute.
“You have a map?”
“Yes. It’s part of the standard equipment for the regular exploration team… They want us to investigate places that haven’t been fully explored yet.”
“Could I see it, please?”
“Of course.”
From a small backpack, Go Yeongeun took out what looked like a thick, folded pamphlet. It was a printed floor plan of the building, overlaid with handwritten notes and sketches in various colors.
‘…The handwriting of Disaster Management Bureau agents.’
“……”
I stared at it, almost spellbound, until I noticed a specific store name.
There was a separate notation on the map.
Some people seem to think they could get something out of this stall, but that’s just suicide. Don’t go.
“…Agent.”
“What you mentioned before. ‘Currency to pay’.”
“Huh? Y-Yes.”
“I think there’s a place where we can get that, based on a hint on your map.”
“……”
But Go Yeongeun took a deep breath and shook her head.
“I’m… sorry, but I object. The third floor is so huge, who knows how long it’ll take just to get there. And I’m afraid of how long it would take to find our way back to this stairwell afterward, especially without any item to fend off employees or danger.”
Beads of sweat formed on her calm face, and she seemed to be trying hard to hide her fear.
“You two can leave when the store reopens. I… I’ll just wait for a rescue. If we don’t have another way to dodge employees or anything, I’d rather not…”
Well, here’s the thing.
“Now we do.”
“…!”
“Remember? There’s something we’ve used before.”
I retrieved an item from my inventory tattoo—something I hadn’t touched in ages.
Now that we were three, we met the recommended number of participants. It was finally usable again.
…And there was no need to think about Agent Bronze for now.
[Quick and Easy Candle Making Kit]
I held the ‘Mysterious Candle Kit’ item box in my hands and, for the first time in three days, I allowed myself a faint smile.
“Let’s make some candles again.”
In the Manor of the Blind, this candle-making item had played a big role in our escape. Now was the perfect time for a comeback.
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