Chapter 21: Ch 21: Ignoring me? fine.
In the desperate situation where the blood-teared mascots with eyeless
stares demanded, "Come on, start killing someone yourself," lies flowed
effortlessly from my mouth.
"A trap, you say?"
"Yes. Think about it."
I struggled to avoid looking at the crazed mascots on the window while
maintaining an expression that said, ’I just had a brilliant thought.’
"This Darkness bound us as a team. But is it really okay to kill a team
member carelessly?"
Actually, it is okay.
"This Darkness chokes us just for putting distance between teammates. But
what if we kill someone?"
You could just carry around the corpse, honestly.
But doing something like that... My cowardly heart might not hold up, and
I’d end up getting reassigned as the ’official torture maniac’, in the perfect
spot to die...
"...I believe there would be a massive penalty."
"Hmm."
The eyes under the butterfly mask narrowed.
"Isn’t there also a penalty if we don’t kill someone?"
"I’m saying we might all be wiped out if we do kill someone."
"..."
"If both possibilities exist, I thought it more rational to choose the option of
preserving our numbers."
The other person seemed slightly swayed.
I swallowed hard and added,
"Of course, the final decision is up to you, Assistant Manager..."
"Right! If you kill me, huh? You’ll die too, huh? You don’t want to die
either, do you, you crazy bastard? Stop..."
Thud.
I firmly struck the back of the researcher’s neck.
Knocked him out cold.
’Why are you so bent on pushing for your own death when the game’s
already rigged?’
No wonder he’s been gambling at the office with that lack of sense!
Apparently, Y-squad’s newbie, face pale as ever, released the researcher’s
limbs now that the restrictions were lifted.
After watching the entire scene, the A-squad superior finally spoke, slowly.
I waited anxiously.
"You."
"..."
"Don’t regret this decision."
Saved.
"Yes, of course."
The A-squad superior didn’t respond further. It seemed my reputation had
taken quite a hit.
But that didn’t matter right now.
What mattered was that we got through this timing safely.
[Die...]
The relentless "Die" narration subsided once we stopped attacking each
other.
Blink.
And as the lights on the train flickered,
"They... they’re gone...!"
The mascots that had surrounded the windows had vanished.
Only the bloodstains remained.
"..."
But that wasn’t the only thing missing.
’Gone.’
The conductor mascot.
The cheerful theme park music.
The lively disembarkation announcement.
"..."
Clang.
Manually pushing the train out, we faced an interior strangely devoid of
sound and light.
"...It’s like we’ve stepped on a landmine."
"..."
True.
I recalled an entry from <Dark Exploration Records>.
========================
Cheerful Theme Park User Guide (Applicable up to Exploration
Record #64)
4- Each zone in the theme park is colored according to its theme! The
place where you first open your eyes is the zone your team belongs to!
Respect the zone. The zone is more important than anything. Look at
the colors, don’t upset the mascots, the mascots are everything in the
zone.
========================
This rule existed for a reason...
If you anger the mascot in a colored zone of the theme park, you’re no
longer respected as a ’guest’ in that zone.
You may end up becoming a player in one deadly game of hide-and-seek.
But stepping on a landmine is better than hitting the nuke button.
’The mascots’ demands escalate like an escalator ride.’
Usually, they start by asking for something simple.
Like eating something, carrying something, or giving them a warm hug.
’But asking us to commit murder right from the start?’
Then by the time we get to the next attraction, we’d be better off dead.
One example in the records even showed mascots ordering something
insane like, "Make a balloon with your own bladder."
By that point, the mascots’ influence would be too strong to resist.
At that point, death might be preferable.
In this horror story world, such fates worse than death happen regularly.
And even now, there’s an escape route.
I swallowed hard.
’Just run.’
If we escape the red rabbit, Magic Bunny’s zone, and enter another
mascot’s zone, this aggro state will dissipate.
For that... let’s see.
’Found it!’
I finally spotted what I’d been looking for, off to the side of the dark exit
path.
"There’s something over there."
"What?"
This was the reason I wanted to ride this attraction in the first place.
’The color map of the theme park!’
[~Fantasyland Color Map~]
After completing this attraction, there’s a map near the final exit that shows
the zones belonging to each mascot.
I quickly approached, muttering to myself,
"A map. This might be useful to us."
"Why is that?"
At first glance, it looks like mere interior decoration. It visually represents
Fantasyland, just as the attraction introduced.
But the information it contains is invaluable.
"Do you remember the theme of this attraction?"
"Well, um... it was about the mascots fighting over territory in this theme
park..."
"Exactly."
I nodded.
"This map should indicate the zones belonging to the other mascots."
"...!"
This way, we could see the shortest route to reach another color zone.
"Running away from a monster that seems upset with us? Taking that with
us?"
The A-squad assistant manager nodded toward the researcher I was
carrying.
Before she could suggest killing him, I responded quickly.
"I’ll wake up Reasearch Team 1’s Assistant Manager as soon as we confirm
the map so he can walk on his own."
"Hmph."
Please, just don’t dismantle him right in front of me...
Any hope of a plan brought a glimmer of hope to the Y-squad newbie’s
face.
I probably looked the same.
’Please, let it be nearby.’
I took a deep breath and quickly approached the map, confirming it...
"..."
"..."
"There’s... nothing."
What?
I looked at the map again.
But the image remained unchanged.
[~Fantasyland Color Map~]
The entire illustrated view of the park.
All in 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]
Every sign had Magic Bunny’s face engraved on it.
"Oh."
[Magic Bunny’s Fantasyland]
A place to escape to...
There’s none.
"..."
"..."
"Isn’t... isn’t there something wrong here, Soleum-ssi? There were clearly
other mascots before..."
"Seems like they were all driven out."
"...!"
The narration we’d heard during the attraction came to mind automatically.
– One by one, one by one, one by one! Dropping them into pits, drowning
them in water, pushing them off cliffs!
So then...
"The yellow and blue ones were killed, and this red mascot took over
everything."
"..."
"Then... what about the other employees who drew pieces of different
colors?"
"Who knows."
The A-squad assistant manager shrugged.
"All missing?"
"...!"
"Does that even matter right now? What matters is..."
The eyes beneath the butterfly mask turned sinister again.
"You seem to have made the wrong choice."
"..."
"Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you’ll die first."
Which could only mean one thing.
There was someone else who would die first.
"It’s already too late anyway."
"..."
Reflexively, I glanced at the unconscious researcher slung over my shoulder
like a deadweight.
B o r i n g
"...!!"
"Wha... what...?"
B o r i n g
The voice echoed in my head.
B o r i n g
Haven’t I heard this somewhere before?
Ah, that talk show, that Tuesday talk show. In that revamped version,
like the Choir of Purgatory
shriekinglikethescreamofadeadpiganimalsthe
mascot!MagicBunny,boredtodeath
"Urgh."
I clamped my hands over my ears.
B o r i n g
I looked down.
The admission band on my wrist was vibrating.
[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Admission Ticket ■□□]
[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Admission Ticket ■□□]
The sound... was coming from there.
N o t f u n
Screeeech.
The vibration grew, tearing at the wristband.
========================
Cheerful Theme Park User Guide (Applicable up to Exploration
Record #64)
1- Keep your admission wristband clean!
If lost or damaged, you are no longer a guest. If not a guest, you are an
intruder. Thief! Lawbreaker! Horrible punishment awaits. Or would
you...
...prefer to be an employee?
========================
No.
I frantically tried to think of a solution.
But there was none.
Nowhere to escape. There was nowhere to run! If I wanted to preserve my
dignity as a human being, it would be better to end things before it was
too...
– Kim Soleum-ssi
Now I was hearing hallucinations too.
– Kim Soleum-ssi. Can you hear me?
’...’
A hallucination, no.
I lifted my head.
Nothing was visible in the empty space, but a voice as clear as day echoed
in my ears, unmistakably real.
The owner of that voice is...
"...Squad Leader?"
– Yes.
Section Chief Lizard— or rather, Squad Leader Lee Jaheon.
This situation felt like déjà vu, though the roles were reversed this time!
"How did you reach us?!"
– I’m using Supervisor Park Minseong’s specialized equipment.
B o r i n g
The voices overlapped, and the sound of ’Great Red Magic Bunny’ grew
faint.
I barely realized I was on the verge of hyperventilating.
No, that wasn’t what mattered here...
– Are you okay, Roe? Are you alive?
– We’re fine! We just completed all three attractions!
The rest of D-squad’s members were all together. How was that possible?
"The three of you aren’t on the same color team, are you?"
I was certain of it.
’Only Squad Leader Lee Jaheon was on the blue team, while the others
were on yellow!’
– Roe, that’s not the point right now...
"It is important! The three of you wound up in the same place in the theme
park, despite being on different teams?"
After a short pause,
– No.
Section Chief Lizard’s calm voice replied.
– I found the other two and then moved.
Several questions popped up simultaneously in my mind, but the most
pressing was this:
"...Where did you find them?"
– On the outskirts of the blue zone.
"...Then, are you currently in the blue mascot’s zone?"
N o t f u n
– Yes.
A shiver ran down my spine.
"The map doesn’t show it, but do you happen to know which point is the
blue zone?"
– I don’t.
Damn it.
"You don’t need exact coordinates. Just tell me any nearby attractions, or
even which direction!"
– Understood.
After a short silence:
– The west...
He got cut off.
"Squad Leader?"
There was no response.
It was likely the time limit on the equipment had expired.
And more crucially than that...
"W-West?"
The face of the Y-squad newbie, who had been listening intently beside me,
turned blank.
A-squad’s superior looked equally unsettled. The reason was simple.
"We’re already in the west, aren’t we?"
Exactly.
The ’Fantasy Train’ was located near the western edge of the Fantasyland
map...
The opposite of the rugged forest on the eastern side, bordered smoothly by
castle walls on the west, was this very attraction.
Further westward in Fantasyland than this was... nothing!
B o r i n g
"It seems we might be in separate theme parks? Like a timeline where the
blue mascot won. The Darkness always has these kinds of variations."
In separate places?
Are we really talking about different parallel dimensions?
N o t f u n
"No."
That can’t be.
"This is a Darkness derived from a board game. If we’re playing the same
game, there’s no reason for separate boards."
"Hey. Shut up."
The A-squad superior replied coldly.
"No matter how much sense you try to make, if it doesn’t match reality, just
drop it."
This isn’t speculation—it’s deduction.
I wanted to convey that there were numerous cases like this, but I knew
they wouldn’t believe me. Right now, all I needed to do was... find the
answer.
Where exactly is ’west’?
’Quickly, quickly.’
Think. There has to be an answer.
I looked at the Fantasyland color map again. Every visible area was still
painted red.
Ferris wheel, carousel, roller coaster, Viking ride, magic palace. Every
single ride was marked with Magic Bunny’s red face.
Every attraction... wait.
"...!"
B o r i n g
Hold on.
I looked over the map again.
And I realized—
"...I found it!"
"What?"
"A different color zone."
It was here.
With certainty, I moved forward. Whether they sensed hope or were
compelled by my determination, my teammates followed.
N o t f u n
We had to move quickly before the mascot noticed us. There was no time to
waste—we needed to get out of this attraction immediately.
I g n o r i n g m e ?
Too late.
T/N: Sorry for disappearing for a bit! I went on a trip and I underestimated
how exhausting and time-consuming it would be, I thought I’d still be able
to scrounge up some Chapters somehow
Anyway, more Chapters ahead again! I’ll update the other two novels soon
too