Chapter 22

Four people burst out of the Fantasy Train exit and ran.

“Hah, huff!”

On either side of me came the desperate panting of people running for their lives.

They had no choice.

Mascots were pouring out.

D i e

“Aaaaagh!”

“Huh, huuugh...”

At every attraction entrance, every shop, every sign, strange, grotesque bubbles seethed up and spat out slimy mascots.

They chased us in bizarre contortions, their snouts turned inside out to expose countless teeth embedded in their innards.

Their bodies shuddered intermittently, and things like melted tentacles burst from their dangling ears and arms.

-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪

-“Ahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahaha! Hahahaha!”

Noise filled every direction.

The theme park music and laughter overlapped in dizzying loops, creating a grotesque din all around us.

These deafening, frightening, bewildering, horrible sounds!!

Every part of it made my head ache and destroyed my sense of direction. But...

“This way! Over here!”

I gritted my teeth, following the coordinates etched into my mind, and clenched my jaw as I turned.

At that moment.

FWIP.

SPLAT.

The fluid at the tip of an incoming tentacle barely grazed my head.

HISSS.

“... Hoo.”

I could feel the hair splashed with fluid melting, smell it burning.

‘This is fucking insane.’

Cold sweat trickled down me.

But my feet did not stop. No, they couldn't.

‘The moment I stop, it's over.’

I'd die. No—the instinctive certainty that something worse awaited sent chills down my spine.

Our only saving grace was that our destination was very close!

Even the researcher was running with drool streaming from his mouth instead of whining.

B o r i n g

“G-get away! Get awaaaay!!”

“Shut up!”

Butterfly Mask shouted. Her eyes betrayed how maddeningly she regretted being unable to throw the researcher to them as bait to buy time.

She had good reason.

‘Too close.’

The mascots swarming us like zombies were multiplying like mad, and some were beginning to appear dangerously close.

And they were fast.

Faster than humans!

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!!’

Just as terror sent a shiver up my back—

“Ghhk!”

Someone finally got caught.

“Aagh, uuurgh...”

Cow Mask toppled over.

‘Fck.’ *

Without even looking back, I somehow managed to flip the coin inside my pocket and summon the glove.

Then I flung several five-hundred-won coins out, creating a translucent Shadow Hand in midair.

WHOOSH.

The Shadow Hand flew through the air and shoved the repulsive mascot's head aside.

“Run!”

The Team Y recruit narrowly escaped death, scrambling out on all fours before breaking into a run, his shoulder riddled with holes.

“Hah, huff, th-thank...”

“Later!”

There wasn't even time to stop the bleeding. Exclusive Equipment or whatever the hell else could wait!

‘The Shadow Hand will disappear once it's more than three meters away any—’

Insane agony slammed into my left hand.

“~!!!”

I nearly clutched my hand and collapsed, rolling around and sobbing.

This feeling, as though my hand were being crushed and melted in a spiked press while I was still alive...

‘My Exclusive Equipment!’

I understood instinctively.

The hand I'd just summoned into the air had suffered something horrific, whether from a mascot's mouth or its tentacles, and vanished.

For the first time, I discovered my Exclusive Equipment's weakness.

If the hand created by the glove was smashed, my own hand hurt just as much!

But there was no time to scream. I ran like mad.

And shouted.

“There!”

Our destination came into view.

An enormous gate.

Painted in bright colors, with that typical theme park design...

[Fantasy Land (Westside Gate)]

A decoration.

A decorative gate attached to the castle wall enclosing the theme park's western side.

“It's blocked off!!”

“Get right beneath it!”

Without hesitation, I was the first to step beneath the decorative gate, then turned back.

Two people tried to step in almost simultaneously: the Team A deputy and the Team Y recruit.

The researcher was behind them, in a potentially dangerous position...

“Move, f*ck!”

“Ugh!”

THUD.

The researcher shoved the Team A employee with all his might, using the recoil to propel himself forward.

“...!”

Her slender body, knocked aside without warning, collided with a mascot.

D i e

Dark red fluid poured from the eyes of the half-melted, crawling mascot onto the butterfly mask.

“Aaaaagh!”

HISSS.

The sound of burning rang in my ears.

“Deputy!”

The Team A employee lay pinned beneath a mascot too hideous for words, her limbs trembling.

The parts of her face left uncovered by the butterfly mask were already a blistering ruin.

What I could see were eyes full of resignation.

The eyes of someone who had calculated with certainty that no help could reach her.

The moment our eyes met—

“Your fingernail!”

I shouted.

“Deputy, your fingernail! Right here!”

At the same time, I opened my left hand and thrust it forward. The Team A deputy's eyes widened. She reached out her right hand, extending her index finger.

FWIP!

The false nail shot straight into the center of my palm.

“...!”

But I didn't flinch.

‘It already hurt like it was smashed to pieces!’

With the greater agony drowning out this new pain, my hand closed firmly around the nail without wavering.

And I pulled.

WHOOSH.

With a brief sound, the body wearing the butterfly mask hurtled toward me.

B o r i n g

Mascots' teeth plunged into the spot she had just barely vacated, and fluid rained down.

“Hah, haaaaah...”

“Hoo...”

We lay sprawled on the ground beneath the gate, catching our breath.

And right in front of our noses—

Countless rabbit mascots stood packed together, forcibly halted, their pupils empty and fluid streaming like bloody tears.

“Eek!”

It looked as though an invisible wall were blocking them.

* * *

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

5. Enjoy the Different Zones!

Have the mascots' appearances and the attractions' colors changed? You're standing in a new zone.

Unfortunately, mascots from other zones cannot exist in the new zone.

Say goodbye. Nicely!

* * *

I looked at the ground.

‘... The bricks were a different color.’

There were exactly two rows of impossibly white bricks beneath the decoration made to look like a main gate.

The mascots stood beyond them, unable to cross over from the red brick paving.

B o r i n g

I looked down at my admission ticket.

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

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

No fun

The voice faded away.

The mascots crowded together before us stood motionless, until, in the blink of an eye...

They vanished.

“...”

“...”

Panting drifted through the newly silent air.

I swallowed.

“... It seems Magic Bunny's Fantasy Land ends here.”

We were alive.

“We've... successfully escaped.”

“Ah...!”

“Uuuugh...”

Groaning in relief and pain, the Team Y recruit clutched his shoulder and collapsed face down.

I too leaned my head against the wall, looking up at the sky as I caught my breath.

‘I thought I was going to die...’

My heart was pounding so hard.

I actually survived that.

The Team A deputy stared at the researcher who had shoved her with a terrifying chill in her eyes, but after a glance at my palm, where flesh had been gouged out in the shape of her fingernail equipment, she regained her composure.

She seemed to have decided that she was alive, at any rate, and couldn't afford to make a scene about killing the researcher now.

It was impressive that she could remain calm despite the tremendous pain she must have been in after having something like acid poured over her head.

“First of all.”

“Yes?”

The Team A deputy took a deep breath.

“Thanks. You saved my life.”

“...”

That was unexpected.

“Not at all. It was thanks to your Exclusive Equipment...”

“There's no point being modest here, okay? Just say you understand. You just made yourself a very good connection.”

Ah. Right.

“Unlike a certain dumbass.”

“...”

The researcher desperately avoided her eyes.

After watching him for a moment, the Team A deputy turned the conversation back to business.

“This looks like some kind of leftover space. Is this what you were aiming for? But it's cramped even just standing here... What are you planning to do?”

“This isn't our destination.”

“Hmm?”

Once I'd fully caught my breath, I turned all the way around to face the decorative gate.

“Did you know? Large theme parks often have more than just an amusement park.”

“... More?”

“Yes.”

Strictly speaking, the space beneath this gate belonged neither to Magic Bunny nor to another mascot. It was unclaimed.

A sort of gap within the theme park, so surely nothing would chase us down to kill us for damaging the property.

I knocked on the gate-shaped wall.

THUNK.

It sounded hollow.

“Deputy. Could you tear this open with your Exclusive Equipment?”

“...”

Without a word, she raised her hand and pulled out her index fingernail again.

Then she wedged it into a crack in the wall and gave it a sharp tug.

“Gasp!”

CRACK, CRACK.

A brick-patterned panel scraped free, and a breeze rushed in.

Carrying with it... the smell of water.

-“Ahahahaha!”

“...!!”

A cheerful march played amid the refreshing rush of splashing water, the sound of a ship's horn, and the cries of seagulls.

Through the gap in the bricks, I could see sunlight pouring down on a wide-open space.

Huge tubular slides wound down through the air, all in different shades of blue, spewing water and inner tubes.

[Blue Dream Water Land]

“This is...!”

A water park.

A summer destination that formed one of the main sections of a large-scale theme park.

“The Blue Zone.”

The Team Y recruit whipped his head toward me hard enough to snap his neck, staring in astonishment.

“H-how?!”

“There wasn't a single water attraction on the Fantasy Land color map we saw earlier.”

“...!”

“So I reasoned that there might be a separate large section elsewhere.”

I took a deep breath.

“I also deduced it would be difficult to access normally. They usually sell separate admission tickets for these places, after all.”

“... So you tore open the wall?”

“Yes.”

I recalled my earlier conversation with Team Leader Lee Jaheon.

[“We're to the wes—”]

West.

Of course, the team leader must have meant west within that Water Land.

But because we happened to be at the western edge of Magic Bunny's Fantasy Land, I had been able to deduce that the Blue Zone existed separately.

‘The east was blocked by forest, the north had the entrance, and the south was a cliff...’

In any case, west was the only direction where there could be space beyond Magic Bunny's Fantasy Land.

That was how I'd interpreted it...

‘And I was right.’

“The blue mascot probably created a new zone here after being driven out of Fantasy Land.”

“Ah...”

“For now, let's hurry through.”

“Y-yes, let's!”

Hands busily tore away the remaining panels. Even the Team Y recruit with the injured shoulder tried to help somehow with one hand.

Meanwhile, the researcher stood in a corner, his eyes darting around, but the slick look had returned to his face.

He seemed to have realized things were going well.

A few seconds later—

“Th-there!”

With the wall panels finally torn away enough for a person to fit through, we began slipping out one by one.

I was the last to leave. Standing on both feet in Water Land, I looked at the blue pools and the blue sky.

A damp breeze swept past.

‘The sunlight...’

It was unbelievably lovely.

Just as a strange sense of freedom began to wash over me,

I saw people in the distance spot me and run toward me, waving.

“Roe Deer!!”

“...!”

It was Team D.

“Are you okay?!”

“Deputy!”

The members of Team D rushed closer, each carrying something bulky, perhaps an inner tube.

Perhaps spending the past month together really had made a difference. Relief surged through me.

“Have you all been well?!”

I approached them with a delighted greeting of my own.

And wondered whether, as the new recruit, I ought to be quick on the uptake and take the load off the team leader's shoulder...

Wait.

‘That's a human body.’

It wasn't luggage.

A human body hung limply over the lizard's shoulder.

‘... A hunting trophy?’

On closer inspection, it was wearing a mallard mask.

Team A's leader.

“...”

No.

No!!