Chapter 7
“……”
Smiley stayed silent.
As if examining something unfamiliar, it only stared at me with its black plastic eyes.
After a while.
Smiley’s claw hand lowered me down.
The moment my feet touched the ground, intense drum and bass BGM began to play.
It was the music that announced the start of the final boss battle of Happy Smile Factory.
A system window appeared.
◆Mai?n Que?st??: Give Smiley eternal rest.
You promised Smiley death.
If you fail to keep your promise, you and your compan?ions will die?die?die?die?
You believe you must win the battle against Smiley.
Maybe because this was not the normal progression, even the system window was acting strangely.
I lightly exhaled.
To fight the final boss, there were still many stages I had to clear and many toy favorability levels I had to raise.
I did not even have a weapon item.
In other words, I had been thrown into a fight with nothing but my bare hands.
But the situation had already become corrupted by an error.
Even if I wanted to proceed in the proper order, I could not.
And although it was not a Happy Smile Factory item….
I had managed to obtain one decent item.
Kind Smiley was waiting for me to make the first move.
I took out the Bolt Candy from my inventory and opened the wrapper.
Bolt Candy’s attack power and physical enhancement buff lasted for 180 seconds.
I had to clear all three phases of Smiley within that time.
35 seconds for Phase 1, 35 seconds for Phase 2, 60 seconds for Phase 3, and 25 seconds each for the phase transition cutscenes.
It was a very tight schedule.
When I put the Bolt Candy into my mouth, a sharp electric taste spread across my tongue.
“Ugh….”
It tingled like static electricity, making me frown naturally.
However, the sensation of actually experiencing the taste that I had only seen written in the system description was enjoyable.
I lightly jumped.
The moment I confirmed that my body moved even better than expected, several strategies appeared in my mind.
I chose one from the many ideas that came up and looked at Smiley.
Smiley, who was waiting for my first attack, quietly followed my movements with its eyes.
Sorry, but you don’t get a turn in Phase 1, Smiley.
“Captain Mo Hae-in!”
I pulled my handcuffed hands back with all my strength.
“Eat the Bolt Candy!!”
I smashed the hinge handcuff into the area above Smiley’s left eye.
Crack!
The plastic eye split apart.
‘It works.’
A special item from the Era Administration, created to restrain suitable individuals.
It had durability far beyond ordinary items, so I thought it might be usable as a weapon, but it was still just a gamble.
The thrill of my bet being correct heated my brain.
Counting the seconds in my head, I grabbed and tore out the broken plastic fragments.
Rainbow-colored liquid burst out, and Smiley shook violently.
The recoil sent me flying backward, and I landed far away.
I looked down, noticing that movement felt easier.
The hinge connecting the handcuffs had broken.
I had unintentionally gained freedom for my hands.
I checked the music playing.
A distorted noise mixed into the background music.
The sound of entering Phase 2.
‘Saved 4 seconds.’
Smiley, leaking rainbow-colored liquid from one eye, slammed its claw hand into the ground.
The earth shook, and cracks spread across the floor.
Small toys crawled out from the gaps.
Even unfinished toys that the employees must have been making escaped from the production line and rushed toward us.
They looked like they were running over to play together, but if I got hit by only two attacks from those toys, it would immediately be a death judgment.
Among the toys pouring from every direction, block bullets flew toward me.
They were bullets fired by toy soldiers.
A bullet I failed to dodge grazed my thigh with burning pain.
The moment I staggered from the pain, a fish toy with its mouth open flew toward my face.
But its sharp teeth could not bite me.
“You crazy bastard!”
The Black Moon Blade cut the fish into pieces.
The fish fragments scattered, becoming fresh toy sashimi.
Mo Hae-in shouted with veins popping on her neck.
“Are you insane?!”
“I’m sorry, Captain.”
But you survived, right?
I only thought the last part.
Fortunately, she had no time to get angry at me, so Mo Hae-in immediately turned her head.
Using the piece of Smiley’s eye that I had torn out earlier as a shield, I quickly said,
“To end Phase 2, we have to attack the left eye.”
Mo Hae-in and I ran forward.
The impact of toys and bullets hitting the shield shook our bodies.
Then Smiley’s claw hand slammed down where I was.
The ground rose violently, and both Mo Hae-in and I were launched into the air.
In the game, it would have simply been an obstacle event.
But here, we ended up standing on top of suddenly rising earth.
Mo Hae-in took the eye fragment I was using as a shield and placed it under our feet.
“Hold on!”
I grabbed Mo Hae-in’s waist.
The moment we touched the raised ground, we slid down using the fragment like a sled.
The toys chasing us could not keep up with the speed and crashed into each other, falling into a chaotic mess.
The moment we reached the bottom, I threw away the damaged fragment and ran toward Smiley again.
Smiley’s claw hand repeatedly targeted us and slammed into the ground, but avoiding it was not difficult.
The moment we entered attack range, Mo Hae-in jumped high.
The Black Moon Blade pierced Smiley’s left eye.
The area where only rainbow-colored liquid remained after losing its outer shell was deeply stabbed by the spear tip.
Even though it was a plastic toy, it felt like stabbing soft flesh.
A mechanical voice of a child laughing loudly repeatedly came from Smiley.
“Die!-Kill-me!-Die!-Kill-me!-Die!”
Mo Hae-in pulled the spear back and landed on the ground.
The 15-meter giant Smiley began shrinking with cracking sounds.
Returning to its 1-meter size, Smiley stood there like it was broken, rainbow-colored liquid flowing from its eyes.
The surroundings filled with hazy rainbow-colored fog.
The BGM became mixed with a noise so loud it hurt my ears.
Phase 3 had begun.
‘Lost about 5 seconds.’
I lost time because I failed to avoid the rising ground at the start.
But there was still room.
I sharpened my senses enhanced by Bolt Candy.
Because the fog limited my vision, reaction speed was the key mechanic.
Rumble—
The ground shook, and everything around us trembled.
The toy factory was collapsing.
Falling objects began dropping.
The heavy objects appearing through the fog would cause instant death if they hit me, and even if I avoided them, they became terrain obstacles.
The floor was quickly covered with large stone pieces, machine parts, and broken toys.
Once the terrain change ended, Smiley began moving.
With a cheerful laugh, I heard the sound of plastic chains rattling behind me.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Heavy footsteps struck the ground.
But I still could not move.
Mo Hae-in, standing close beside me, asked in a low voice.
“Is there no trick for this one?”
“You just have to run honestly. But at the end….”
I told Mo Hae-in what I planned to do at the very end.
She frowned, but we had no time to continue talking.
The factory speakers that had been playing the BGM crackled.
A signal sound rang out.
“One, two, Happy Smile!”
The restraints on our feet disappeared.
Mo Hae-in and I ran forward like crazy.
Smiley’s final Phase 3 was a chase sequence.
Unlike Smiley, which chased while destroying everything blocking its path, the player had to run while avoiding obstacles on the ground.
Dodging claw hands that suddenly appeared from behind large obstacles.
Even with the physical enhancement from Bolt Candy, I was already out of breath.
Through the tearing BGM, an announcement played.
“Announcement. We. Inform. You. Happy Smile Factory’s Gun-Bam. Gun-Bam employee. Gun-Bam employee must stop moving immediately. Immediately. Stooooop.”
It dragged out the name Gun-Bam so long it sounded almost like roasted chestnut.
It kept calling my name, but I never looked back.
The rainbow fog slowly began to fade.
It meant the virtual space created by Smiley was ending.
However, the remaining time was dangerously close.
The chase lasted longer than expected.
‘8 seconds.’
The tension that it might take even longer made my skin feel like it was tingling.
‘5 seconds.’
Finally, I could see the end of the fog.
I squeezed out my last strength.
‘3 seconds.’
Just before escaping the fog.
Throb!
A sharp pain struck my thigh.
I had failed to notice a steel frame sticking out between the stones.
Of all places, it hit my injured area again.
As the buff time ended, my enhanced physical ability disappeared.
My body suddenly became heavy.
I stumbled and fell.
My hand uselessly cut through the fog.
‘Just one more step and I’m out.’
At that moment, a claw hand grabbed my collar.
But it was not Smiley.
Mo Hae-in had extended a toy arm and pulled me away.
The moment I was dragged out, the fog and obstacles covering everything disappeared.
I came outside the factory.
I saw the collapsing toy factory.
And Smiley, chasing after us until the very end despite its horribly damaged state.
Mo Hae-in threw me onto the ground, grabbed the Black Moon Blade, and pulled her arm back as far as possible.
The spear flew like a thrown weapon and pierced Smiley.
Smiley collapsed into the dirt and let out a childlike cry.
“I don’t want this—!”
The ear-piercing background music disappeared.
The final boss battle of Happy Smile Factory was over.
You have won the battle against Smiley!
“Haa, haa.”
Mo Hae-in put away the Black Moon Blade and sat down on the ground, breathing heavily.
I also caught my breath before standing up unsteadily.
Mo Hae-in’s eyes shook slightly.
She looked conflicted, as if wondering whether allowing me to do what I was about to do was really the right choice.
“Captain….”
At my painful call, Mo Hae-in muttered in dissatisfaction.
“What exactly are you trying to do by healing the boss?”
But she did not stop me.
I limped alone toward Smiley.
I opened the wrapper of Nut Candy and placed it where its mouth seemed to be.
The candy melted like light and seeped into Smiley.
Smiley, whose broken body had been restored, slowly stood up.
It stared blankly at me.
“Because I want to keep my promise.”
The only one who could kill Smiley was a being that shared the same blood and flesh.
A twin separated after losing their memories as children.
That was the identity of the player.
Smiley gained power together with eternal life and remembered the player.
It had called the only person who could kill it to the factory.
I truly wanted to give Smiley rest.
Death was the happy ending meant for Smiley.
The black plastic eyes stared at me for a long time.
A quiet voice came out.
“Why—did—you—come—now?”
The childlike voice, stretched out slowly, was not a mechanical sound.
‘But this isn’t the original line….’
Something felt very twisted, but it seemed I was still heading toward the true ending, so I quietly apologized.
“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.
“I—don’t—want—to—die.”
Then it slowly reached out its claw hand and grabbed the end of my work uniform sleeve.
“Go—with—me—Gunbam—together—forever—.”
It sounded like a child begging.
If it were possible, I wanted to take it with me immediately.
But it was not an item, and there was no way.
At that moment, a system window appeared.
Smiley and the toys want to become ■■ ■■ ■■.
Do you willingly accept their request to become the ■ and ■ of ■■ ■?
The letters were covered by strange ■ symbols, making the contents impossible to understand.
The following choices were even worse.
- Yes!
- Of course.
- YEEES!
No…, seriously.
I had no choice.
If I refused, I would not be able to see the ending.
I selected “YEEES!”
With a cheerful notification sound, a system window appeared.
Cleared!
- ■■ ■■ ■■ Feast Ending.
Announcing an ending I had never seen before.
