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.