Chapter 21

Mascots weeping blood stared at me with pupil-less eyes, while I faced the life-or-death demand, “Well, since we're here, you try killing someone first.”

The lies flowed effortlessly from my mouth.

“A trap?”

“Yes. Think about it.”

Trying not to look at the deranged mascots in the windows, I maintained my expression of “I've just had a brilliant idea.”

“This Darkness is what bound us together as a team. Would it really be safe to kill a teammate on a whim?”

Actually, it would.

“This Darkness strangles us just for moving too far away from our teammates. What happens if we kill one?”

You just carry the corpse around.

Of course, my cowardly heart wouldn't withstand that, and I'd throw up, get labeled “This fucker's a liability,” and be reassigned somewhere perfect for getting killed...

“... However I look at it, I think there would be an enormous penalty.”

“Hmm.”

The eyes beneath the butterfly mask narrowed.

“Couldn't we get penalized for not killing anyone?”

“Conversely, killing someone could wipe us all out.”

“...”

“If both are possible, I thought it would be more rational to choose the option that preserves our numbers.”

She wavered slightly. I swallowed and added,

“Of course, the decision is yours, Deputy...”

“That's right! If you kill m-me, huh? You'll die too, huh, huh? You crazy bitch! You don't want to die either. Stop...”

THWACK.

I decisively struck the researcher on the back of the neck.

Meaning I knocked him out.

'I've set everything up for you. Why are you so desperate to get yourself killed?'

No wonder he gambled at work, with social awareness like that!

Apparently released from the compulsion by then, the Team Y recruit was letting go of the researcher's limbs, his face deathly pale.

Having watched all this, the Team A superior slowly spoke.

I waited anxiously.

“You.”

“...”

“You'd better not make me regret this.”

I was saved.

“Yes, of course.”

The Team A superior didn't reply. My standing with her seemed to have dropped considerably.

But that wasn't important right now.

What mattered was that I'd made it past this moment.

[“Di...”]

Once we stopped without attacking each other, the narration endlessly repeating “Die” gradually subsided.

The lights flickered.

And in that instant—

“Th-they're gone...!”

The mascots surrounding the windows had vanished.

Only bloodstains remained.

“...”

But they weren't the only things that had disappeared.

'Gone.'

The engineer mascot.

The lively theme park music.

The cheerful voice telling us to disembark.

“...”

SCREECH.

After pushing the train along by hand and climbing out, we surveyed an interior eerily devoid of sound and light.

“... Looks like we stepped on a land mine.”

“...”

That... was true.

I recalled another exploration record.

* * *

Gaiety Theme Park User Guide (Applicable Through Exploration Log 64)

4. Each zone of the theme park is colored according to its theme! The place where you first open your eyes is your team's zone!

Respect the zones. Zones matter more than anything Look at the colors Do not displease the mascots The mascots are everything to their zones

* * *

That rule wasn't there for nothing...

If you got on the mascot's bad side in one of the park's colored zones, you would no longer be respected as a “guest” in that zone.

You might have to play a deadly game of tag.

But I couldn't push the nuclear button just to avoid stepping on a land mine, could I?

'The mascot's demands keep escalating.'

Usually, its first request was something simple.

Eat something, hold something, or give it a warm hug.

'But ordering murder on the very first turn?'

By the time we reached our third attraction, we'd be subjected to treatment worse than death.

I'd already seen insane orders like “Make a balloon out of your own bladder” in the exploration logs...

By that point, the mascot's influence would be so strong that we couldn't even refuse.

'I'd rather die.'

This was a horror universe where fates worse than death were commonplace.

And it wasn't as though we had no escape route, even now.

I swallowed.

'Just run.'

If we left the red rabbit Magic Bunny's zone and entered another mascot's territory, we'd lose its aggro.

To do that... let's see.

'Found it!'

I finally spotted what I wanted along one side of the dark exit passage.

“There's something over there.”

“Huh?”

This was why I'd wanted to ride this attraction in the first place.

'The theme park's color map!'

[~Fantasy Land Color Map~]

At the very end of this attraction, by the exit, there was a map showing each mascot's territory.

I approached quickly, murmuring,

“A map. This could help us.”

“H-how?”

At first glance, it was merely decoration.

Since the ride had introduced Fantasy Land, it just looked like a visual representation of that introduction.

But the information it contained was immense.

“Do you remember the story of this attraction?”

“Ah, uh, well, the theme park mascots were fighting over the land...”

“Exactly.”

I nodded.

“The map in this attraction should show the other mascots' zones.”

“...!”

We could see the shortest route to a differently colored zone with our own eyes.

“So, since we seem to have pissed off the monster, we run? Carrying that?”

The Team A deputy jerked her chin toward the researcher on my back.

Afraid she might suggest killing him even now, I answered immediately.

“As soon as we've checked the map, I'll wake up the supervisor from Research Team 1 and make him walk properly.”

“Hmm.”

Please, just don't put on a dismemberment show in front of me...

At any rate, having some prospect of a way forward brought a little hope back to the Team Y recruit's face.

I probably looked much the same.

'Please be close.'

Taking a deep breath, I hurried over to the map to check—

“...”

“There... aren't any.”

Huh?

I looked at the map again.

But the picture didn't change.

[~Fantasy Land Color Map~]

The entire view of the theme park shown on it was...

Red.

[Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone] [Magic Bunny zone]

Magic Bunny's face was stamped on every sign.

“Ah.”

[Magic Bunny's Fantasy Land]

There was nowhere...

To run.

“...”

“I-isn't something wrong here? Soleum, there were definitely, definitely other mascots earlier...”

“They were all driven out.”

“...!”

The narration we'd heard during the ride came back to me automatically.

[“Dropped them in caves, drowned them in water, pushed them off cliffs!”]

Then...

“That red mascot killed both the yellow and blue ones and took over this whole place.”

“...”

“Then... the employees who drew the other colored pieces...”

“Who knows?”

The Team A deputy shrugged.

“All missing?”

“...!”

“Does that matter right now? What matters is...”

The eyes beneath the butterfly mask turned sinister again.

“It looks like you made the wrong choice.”

“...”

“Don't worry. Not so wrong that you have to die first.”

That meant only one thing.

Someone else had to die first.

“We're already late, you know?”

“...”

... The instant I reflexively turned toward the unconscious researcher slung over my shoulders like luggage—

I ' m b o r e d

“...!!”

“Wh-what...”

I ' m b o r e d

A voice reverberated inside my head.

I ' m b o r e d

Hadn't I heard something like this before?

Ah, the talk show, The Tuesday Talk Show. Like the screamfromthedeadpigsheadofthesacrificialchoirontherevampedtalkshowanimalanimalit'samascot! MagicBuMagicBunnyisbore

“Ghk.”

I clamped my hands over my ears.

I ' m b o r e d

I lowered my gaze.

The admission ticket around my wrist was vibrating.

[(Gaiety) Fantasy Land Admission Ticket ■□□]

The voice was coming from here.

N o f u n

RRRIP.

It began tearing from the vibrations of the voice.

The admission ticket.

* * *

Gaiety Theme Park User Guide (Applicable Through Exploration Log 64)

1. Keep your admission ticket bracelet clean!

If it is lost or damaged, you are no longer a guest. If you are not a guest, you are an intruder. Thief! Criminal! A terrible punishment awaits you. Or

Want to become an employee?

* * *

No.

I desperately tried to think.

But there was no way out.

There really wasn't an inch of room to escape. Nowhere to run! If I wanted to preserve my human dignity, maybe I should kill myself before it was too late—

“Mr. Kim Soleum.”

Now I was even hearing things—

“Mr. Kim Soleum. Can you hear me?”

'...'

It wasn't a hallucination!

I jerked my head up.

There was nothing visible in the air, but the voice in my ear was far too clear to mistake for a hallucination.

Its owner was...

“... Team Leader?”

“Yes.”

Section Chief Lizard, Team Leader Lee Jaheon.

This situation felt familiar. Though our positions were reversed!

“How did you contact me?!”

“I'm using Supervisor Park Minseong's Exclusive Equipment.”

I ' m b o r e d

The voices overlapped, blurring the sound of theredgreatMagicBunny. Only then did I realize I'd been on the verge of hyperventilating.

No, that wasn't important...

“Is Roe Deer all right? You're alive, aren't you?”

“We're fine! We just finished all three attractions!”

All of Team D was together. How had that happened?

“But the three of you weren't on the same colored team, were you?”

I remembered clearly.

'Only Team Leader Lee Jaheon was blue. The other two were yellow!'

“Roe Deer, that's not important right now...”

“It is important! Did the three of you wake up in the same place in the theme park despite being on different teams?”

After a brief silence,

“No.”

Section Chief Lizard's calm voice answered.

“I found the two of them, then we moved.”

Several questions sprang to mind at once, but this was the most urgent. Namely—

“... Where did you find them?”

“On the outskirts of the Blue Zone.”

“... Then you're in the blue mascot's zone right now?”

N o f u n

“Yes.”

A shiver ran through me.

“It isn't marked on the map. Where exactly is the Blue Zone?”

“I don't know.”

Damn it.

“I don't need exact coordinates. Even the nearby attractions would help! A compass direction would do.”

“I see.”

After a brief silence,

“It's to the wes—”

CLICK.

The connection cut out.

“Team Leader?”

No answer came.

The time limit on the Exclusive Equipment had probably expired.

But more important than that guess was...

“W-west??”

The Team Y recruit, who'd been desperately listening beside me, looked stunned.

The Team A superior wore much the same expression.

The reason was simple.

“We're in the west.”

Exactly.

Fantasy Train was located almost at the westernmost edge of the Fantasy Land map...

Unlike the east, irregularly bordered by forest, the neatly finished western edge was enclosed by a castle wall.

And this attraction sat right beside that wall.

There was nowhere farther west in Fantasy Land!

I ' m b o r e d

“Looks like we ended up in different theme parks. A timeline where the blue mascot won, or something. That's Darkness for you.”

We'd ended up in different places?

The premise was that these were entirely separate parallel dimensions?

N o f u n

“No.”

That couldn't be.

“This Darkness originated from a board game. We wouldn't be using different boards to play the same game.”

“Hey. Shut up.”

The Team A superior answered coldly.

“All that babbling... No matter how convincing your bullshit sounds, drop it if it doesn't match reality.”

No, this wasn't deduction. It was inductive reasoning.

I wanted to tell her there were countless precedents, but I knew she'd never believe me. What I needed now... was simply to give her the right answer.

Where the hell was “west”?

'Quickly, quickly.'

Think. There had to be an answer.

I looked at the Fantasy Land color map again. Every visible zone was still painted red.

The Ferris wheel, the carousel, the roller coaster, the swinging ship, the magic palace. Magic Bunny's red face spun over every last one.

Every ride... Wait.

“...!”

I ' m b o r e d

Hold on.

I scanned the map again.

And realized.

“... I found it!”