TYRH 06

Chapter 06

Before I could even answer, she spoke in an icy voice.

“Nut Candy.”

It wasn’t a question—it was an interrogation that made it clear there was no point trying to deny it. Her words instantly brought a memory to mind.

“Well… when I picked up this candy, it said it could repair toys.”

That was what I had said while explaining the Sad Smiley fragments.

Anyone who wasn’t a Compatible couldn’t see an item’s description—in other words, the system window—for Nut Candy.

It was such a simple deduction.

To me, though, system windows were so natural that I had carelessly let it slip.

Mo Hae-in must have become suspicious from that moment, and after seeing me come back alive despite being left alone, she had finally become certain.

I’ll have to be more careful from now on.

I had already decided to stop pretending to be an ordinary civilian.

Staying ignorant wouldn’t make it any easier to reach the True Ending with Park Seong-gyeon around.

That was why I had dealt with Princess Tarantella in the first place.

I answered vaguely.

“I think I can.”

“‘Think?'”

“This is my first time experiencing something like this. A rectangular message pops up… is that what’s called the system window?”

“That’s right.”

Without lowering the tip of her spear, Mo Hae-in asked,

“How did you deal with the spider?”

“I just avoided it.”

The spear lightly jabbed beneath my chin.

I hurriedly added,

“I could see its attack patterns. I’ve always had pretty good eyesight.”

Mo Hae-in let out an incredulous laugh.

“You’re telling me you beat that spider with nothing but your reflexes and dynamic vision? No items?”

“I just treated it like a game. It felt similar, so I played it the way I’d play one. I like games.”

The corners of my eyes naturally slanted upward, making me look smug whenever I kept a straight face.

I tried my best to soften my expression and forced a slight smile.

“And… you said we don’t really die here.”

“What a fearless idiot.”

Mo Hae-in muttered something that was somewhere between an insult and a compliment before finally lowering her spear.

I rubbed the spot under my chin where she’d poked me.

At least it didn’t seem to be bleeding.

She silently watched me.

“For someone who’s entered a Trial for the first time… playing like this is…”

She trailed off before shaking her head.

“We’ll talk once we’re out. What’s your name?”

“Han Goyo.”

“Call me Captain.”

“Yes.”

And then something happened that made me address her immediately.

“…Captain?”

Click.

A pair of hinged handcuffs snapped shut around my wrists.

They were special restraints issued by the Trial Response Agency, available only to officers of captain rank or higher—handcuffs specifically designed to restrain Compatibles.

Unable to move my hands at all, I looked at Mo Hae-in in bewilderment.

Caressing the shaft of her Black Moon Spear, she warned,

“Behave yourself, alright?”

“…”

I wisely chose to keep my mouth shut.

Apparently, earning Mo Hae-in’s trust had ended in complete failure.

Instead of heading toward the next stage, Mo Hae-in turned back.

“We’re going to find Park Seong-gyeon first.”

She opened a sealed door in the corridor between the warehouse and the laboratory.

Behind it was a small room containing an elevator.

Unlike the colourful surroundings designed to resemble a children’s paradise, the elevator was built entirely from dull grey steel.

▼

There was only a button for going down.

The moment she pressed it, the doors slid open.

The first thing that caught my eye was the huge crimson warning painted across the wall.

NO CHILDREN ALLOWED!

The control panel inside was just as strange.

Although there was space for roughly fifty floor buttons, there was only one enormous button.

Inside the long rectangular button was an endless string of numbers.

B9999999999999999…

I gave up counting the number of nines.

Mo Hae-in spread her fingers wide and pressed the oversized button.

A burst of static crackled from the speaker.

“D-D-Descending. Ch-Children… no… down. Down. Down.”

The doors closed, and the elevator began its descent.

Standing inside the descending lift, she tucked her spear beneath one arm and folded her arms.

“You.”

Even though she still treated me like a suspicious criminal, at least she was talking to me.

“Yes?”

“What do you think happens if you die here?”

If you exhausted all your lives and got a Game Over…

Or if you equipped Cherry Pickers on both arms and both legs…

The player became an employee of the factory.

“You become an employee in the toy factory and can never leave.”

Mo Hae-in was merely stating something I already knew.

But what she said next was something I didn’t.

“Where we’re going… there are people like that. People trapped inside the Trial.”

I already knew what was in the underground level from the game.

Hundreds of workers wearing the same overalls as the player tirelessly assembled toys.

I’d explored every corner, but since there were no events, I’d assumed it was just a hidden area the developers had added as a joke—an Easter egg.

…Those workers were all people trapped inside the Trial?

I remembered finding those tiny pixel-art workers adorable as they endlessly repeated the same animation while making toys.

They never grew tired.

They never got sick.

They never looked like they were suffering.

In the gloomy underground factory, they simply wore wide, cheerful smiles that perfectly matched Happy Smile Factory and happily kept making toys.

I slowly swallowed before asking,

“Is Second Lieutenant Park Seong-gyeon down there?”

“‘Second Lieutenant,’ my ass. I’m stripping that bastard of his uniform.”

Mo Hae-in rested her cheek against the blade of the Black Moon Spear.

Watching her cheek squish harmlessly against such a razor-sharp edge briefly made me forget the situation.

So the rumours were true.

The Black Moon Spear would never harm its master.

Even though she leaned her face against the blade, not even the slightest scratch appeared.

Looking down, she muttered,

“Right from the start he attacked an NPC, turned every toy hostile, then committed insubordination against his superior. And after all that, he doesn’t even have the ability to clear the Trial on his own.”

So Park Seong-gyeon had attacked a Smiley.

Mo Hae-in had lost one of her Hearts protecting him.

Now I finally understood the noise I’d heard when I first woke up in the factory.

Mo Hae-in had already revived after her first death and was fighting the Smileys that had become hostile.

That was why an experienced veteran like her had been forced onto the much harder Collapse Ending route.

“Until I finish clearing the Trial, the underground is the only place where Park Seong-gyeon can hide without the toys attacking him.”

I glanced at the badge on her chest.

The smiling emoticon attached to it was crying now.

Mo Hae-in was on the verge of a Game Over.

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“It is. But I can’t clear the Trial while worrying that idiot’s going to stab me in the back.”

She wasn’t wrong.

Park Seong-gyeon still had two Hearts left.

Of course, putting Cherry Pickers on all four limbs meant an instant Game Over, but unless he’d completely lost his mind, he wouldn’t do that.

With three Cherry Pickers already equipped, he currently held the physical advantage.

To be fair, I had my own contingency plan.

The Bolt Candy I’d gone out of my way to obtain through a bug exploit.

If things came to the worst, I intended to hand it over to Mo Hae-in.

Explaining how I’d acquired it would be troublesome, though, so it would be best if we could subdue Park Seong-gyeon without ever needing to use it.

Clunk.

The elevator gave a brief jolt as it reached its destination and came to a stop.