Chapter 7
...
Smiley was silent.
Its black plastic eyes simply held me still, as if examining something unfamiliar.
A moment later.
Smiley’s pincer hand lowered me to the ground.
The moment my feet touched the floor, a pounding drum and bass BGM kicked in. The music that signaled the start of HapFactory’s final boss fight.
A System window rose before me.
◆Mai?n Que?st??: Grant Smiley Eternal Rest.
You have promised Smiley death.
If you fail to keep that promise, you and your c?mpanions?will?di?die?di?die?
You believe you must win the battle against Smiley.
The System window was corrupted too — probably because this wasn’t normal progression.
I exhaled softly.
The truth was, I still had plenty of stages to clear and toy affinities to earn before the final boss fight.
I didn’t even have a weapon item.
In short, I was charging in headfirst with nothing but bare hands.
But the situation was already bugged. Even if I wanted to follow the proper order, I couldn’t.
And sure, it wasn’t a HapFactory item, but...
I had managed to get one decent thing.
Good Smiley was waiting for me to strike first. I pulled Bolt Candy from my inventory and tore open the wrapper.
Bolt Candy’s attack power and body enhancement buff lasted 180 seconds.
I had to clear all three of Smiley’s phases in that time.
Thirty-five seconds each for Phase 1 and Phase 2, sixty seconds for Phase 3, and twenty-five seconds for the event scenes between phases.
A tight time budget.
As I put the Bolt Candy in my mouth, a jolt of electricity tingled across my tongue.
"Ngh..."
It stung like static electricity, my face scrunching up involuntarily.
But the sensation of tasting something I’d only ever seen as lines of text in a System window was strangely pleasant.
I sprang lightly into the air.
The moment I confirmed my body moving beyond what I’d expected, several workable strategies flooded my mind.
I picked one from among the thoughts that surfaced and looked at Smiley.
Smiley, still waiting for my first move, silently tracked my movements with its eyes.
Sorry, Smiley, but in Phase 1, you don’t get a turn.
"Captain Mo Haein!"
I wrenched my cuffed hands back as hard as I could.
"Eat the Bolt Candy!!"
I brought the Hinge Handcuffs slamming down on Smiley’s left eye.
CRACK!
The plastic eye split open.
’That actually worked.’
A TRA special-issue item made to restrain Adaptees.
I’d figured it could be used as a weapon since its durability was far higher than most items, but it was still a gamble.
The thrill of the bet paying off heated my brain.
Counting seconds in my head, I grabbed the cracked plastic fragments and ripped them off.
Rainbow-colored blood burst out as Smiley thrashed its body.
The recoil sent me flying, and I landed far away.
I noticed my movements felt freer and looked down — the hinge connecting the handcuffs had broken.
Having unintentionally gained freedom for my hands, I checked the music.
A crackling static was bleeding into the background track.
The sound of the fight transitioning to Phase 2.
’Saved four seconds.’
Smiley, rainbow liquid streaming from one eye, slammed its pincer hand into the ground.
An earthquake rippled through the floor as it split open.
Small toys crawled up through the cracks.
Unfinished toys the employees must have been making also broke free from the assembly line and came running.
They looked like they wanted to play together, but getting hit just twice by those toys meant instant death.
Block bullets flew from between the toys pouring in from all sides. Shots fired by soldier toys.
A bullet I couldn’t dodge in time seared across my thigh.
As I staggered from the pain, a fish toy lunged at my face, mouth wide open.
But its sharp teeth never reached me.
"You crazy bastard!"
The Black Moon Blade chopped the fish to pieces. Fish toy sashimi scattered everywhere.
Mo Haein’s neck veins bulging as she shouted.
"Is this guy out of his damn mind!"
"Sorry, Captain."
But I’m alive, right?
I kept the second part to myself.
Fortunately, Mo Haein didn’t have the energy to stay mad at me — she immediately turned her head.
Using the Smiley eyeball fragment I’d ripped off earlier as a shield, I spoke quickly.
"To finish Phase 2, we need to attack the left eye."
Mo Haein and I sprinted forward. The impact of toys and bullets slamming into the shield rattled my body.
Then Smiley’s pincer hand came down where I stood.
The ground surged upward, launching Mo Haein and me into the air.
In a game, this would’ve been a simple obstacle mechanic, but here, we were stranded on top of a suddenly risen pillar of earth.
Mo Haein snatched the eyeball fragment I’d been using as a shield and planted it as a foothold.
"Hold on!"
I grabbed Mo Haein’s waist.
The moment we touched the risen ground, we went sliding down on the fragment like a sled.
The toys that had been charging at us couldn’t keep up with the sled’s speed, crashing into each other and tumbling down in a chaotic mess.
The moment we hit the bottom, I hurled the shattered fragment aside and ran for Smiley again.
Its pincer hand kept slamming the ground, trying to catch us, but it wasn’t hard to dodge.
The moment we were in range, Mo Haein leaped high.
The Black Moon Blade sank into Smiley’s left eye.
Its outer shell was gone, leaving only a pool of rainbow liquid — the blade’s tip dug deep into it.
Even though it was a plastic toy, it felt like piercing soft flesh.
A mechanical sound of a child giggling and shouting repeated from Smiley.
"Die!-Kill-me!-Die!-Kill-me!-Die!"
Mo Haein pulled the spear free and landed on the ground. The fifteen-meter Smiley began to shrink, creaking and cracking.
Back down to one meter, Smiley stood there with rainbow liquid dripping from its eye, frozen like a broken machine.
The air filled with hazy rainbow-colored mist. A tearing noise, almost painfully loud, bled into the BGM.
Phase 3 had begun.
’Lost about five seconds.’
I’d lost time when I couldn’t dodge the rising ground at the start.
But there was still room.
I sharpened the senses heightened by Bolt Candy. With visibility limited by the mist, reaction speed was the key mechanic.
BOOM — the ground trembled as everything shook. The sound of the toy factory collapsing.
Debris began to fall.
Heavy objects emerging from the mist meant instant death on impact, and even if dodged, they became terrain obstacles.
The floor was quickly buried under huge stone fragments, machine parts, and broken toys.
Once the terrain change finished, Smiley began moving in earnest.
A cheerful laugh echoed behind me, accompanied by the clanking of a plastic chain drawing closer.
A child’s voice slowly sounded out the syllables. "Kung... kung... kung... kung... mook..." Then the rest: "—jik-ha-ge nae-ri-kkot-hin-neun bal-so-ri." Heavy footsteps slamming down.
But I still couldn’t move.
Mo Haein, pressed close beside me, asked in a low voice.
"Anything for this part?"
"We just have to run, straight up. But at the very end..."
I told Mo Haein what I planned to do at the finish. She frowned but didn’t argue further.
The factory speakers that had been playing the BGM crackled, then a signal tone dropped.
"One, two, Happy Smile!"
The bindings on our feet released. Mo Haein and I sprinted forward like mad.
Smiley’s final Phase 3 was a chase.
Unlike Smiley, which smashed through everything in its path to pursue us, the Player had to run while dodging obstacles on the ground.
Dodging the pincer hands that lunged out from behind large obstacles.
Even with my physical abilities enhanced by Bolt Candy, my breath was climbing up to my chin.
An announcement played through the tearing BGM.
"Announcement. For the. Attention. Of. Happy Smile Factory’s Roa-sted Chestnut. Roa-sted Chestnut employee. Roa-sted Chestnut employee, please stop moving immediately. Immediately. Stooooop."
They were drawing out the name "Roasted Chestnut" so long it almost sounded like they were actually roasting a chestnut.
They kept calling out to me, but I never looked back.
The rainbow mist began to thin. It meant the virtual space Smiley had created was ending.
But the remaining seconds were razor-thin. The chase had gone on longer than expected.
’Eight seconds.’
The tension that it might stretch even longer made my skin prickle.
’Five seconds.’
Finally, I could see the edge of the mist.
I squeezed out the last of my strength.
’Three seconds.’
Right before I broke free of the mist.
A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my thigh.
I hadn’t seen the rebar jutting out from between the stone debris. And of all places, it hit the same spot I’d already injured.
The buff time ran out. The enhanced physical abilities faded.
My body suddenly felt impossibly heavy, and I stumbled, tumbling to the ground.
My hand parted the mist uselessly.
’Just one more step and I’d be outside.’
Then a pincer hand grabbed me by the scruff of the neck.
It wasn’t Smiley. Mo Haein had extended her toy arm and hooked me.
The moment I was dragged out, the mist and obstacles covering everything vanished.
I was outside the factory.
The collapsing toy factory came into view. And Smiley, still chasing after me with its body mangled and broken.
Mo Haein hurled me to the ground, gripped the Black Moon Blade, and pulled her arm all the way back.
The spear shot forward like a javelin, piercing straight through Smiley.
Smiley crumpled to the dirt floor, letting out a child’s cry.
"No---!"
The ear-splitting background music cut out. HapFactory’s final boss fight was over.
You have won the battle against Smiley!
"Hah... hah..."
Mo Haein sheathed the Black Moon Blade and collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
I steadied my own breathing, then staggered to my feet.
Mo Haein’s gaze flickered briefly. Her eyes showed conflict — whether she should let me do what I was about to do.
"Captain..."
At my call, laced with a pained groan, she muttered resentfully.
"What the hell are you going to do by healing the boss."
But she didn’t stop me.
I limped toward Smiley alone.
I tore open a Nut Candy wrapper and placed it where its mouth should have been. The candy dissolved like light, seeping into Smiley.
Smiley’s broken body repaired itself as it slowly rose.
It stood there, looking up at me.
"I came to keep my promise."
The only thing that could kill Smiley was something that shared its blood and flesh.
A twin, separated in childhood after losing their memories.
That was the Player’s true identity.
Smiley had gained power along with eternal life, remembered the Player, and called the only being who could kill it to the factory.
I genuinely wanted to give Smiley peace.
Death itself was the happy ending for Smiley.
Its black plastic eyes held me for a long moment. Then a quiet voice came out.
"Why-did-you-come-only-now?"
The drawn-out, childish voice wasn’t mechanical.
’But that’s not the original line...’
Something felt deeply twisted, but it seemed like we were still heading toward the true ending, so I apologized without arguing.
"Sorry."
I hesitated, then placed my hand on top of Smiley’s head.
As I gently stroked the smooth plastic, Smiley said another strange line.
"Don’t-wanna-die."
Then it slowly extended its pincer hand and grabbed the edge of my workwear sleeve.
"Wanna-go-with-Roasted-Chestnut-together-forever."
It sounded like a child wheedling. My heart wanted to take it right away, but it wasn’t an item — there was no way.
Then a System window appeared.
Smiley and the toys wish to become ■■ ■■ ■■.
You willingly wish to accept their request to become ■■ ■’s ■ and ■.
The text was covered in strange ■ characters, making it impossible to read properly.
And the options that followed were ridiculous.
- Yes!
- Absolutely.
- YEEES!
Seriously... hah.
If I didn’t accept, I wouldn’t see the ending, so I had no choice.
I picked ’YEEES!’ A cheerful notification rang out as the System window appeared.
<Happy Smile Factory> Cleared!
- ■■ ■■ ■■ Banquet Ending.
Announcing an ending I’d never seen before.